The Lines Between Ricks And Mortys
by HopeTheCrazyCat
Summary: Part 11 of "Entricked Fates" series: After losing his portal gun to the Council of Ricks thanks to Mysterious Rick, Rick C-137 is forced to participate in the Pocket Mortys game. At the same time, Rick C-133 is on the Citadel trying to find the Morty who had tried to kill and replace his Morty and Rick P-78 and his Morty help him in the search... (warnings are in the chapters)
1. Chapter 1: Getting into the Game

AN: I'm so sorry for the long absence, but I'm finally back (more or less). Everyone, who followed me on Twitter (hopethecrazycat) had surely noticed that I was taking a break from things.

Anyways, this is a fanfic that I had finished for a while already, but I hadn't posted it before because I wanted to add more visual stuff to it (may not make much sense for you here on FFN, but does for AO3, my tumblr (ramheavenandhell) and my DA (hope27), so yeah). However, I never really finished any of those plans and so I give this to you now as it is.

Still, I'm excited to finally be showing this to you.  
While it is a direct continuation to all the previous stories in the "Entricked Fates" series, I'll tried to write it in a way that you will still understand what's going on even if you haven't read them (of course, this will still be more fun for you to read if you have read all the other ones before).  
Also, if my "Entricked Fates" series has something like arcs this story could be considered the season 1 finale.

Warnings: there will be Rick/Morty and Rick/Rick and also smut in later chapters, but for this one only mentions of trauma and past rape

* * *

**The Lines Between Ricks And Mortys – Chapter 1: Getting into the Game**

_~Though they were born beneath alternated stars  
_

_they will join in one battle  
__and will fight under the same sky~_

Rick C-137 scowled as he walked over the plaza with his Morty in tow.  
They were now stuck on the Citadel of Ricks, with no portal gun and forced to participate in this stupid "Pocket Mortys Game" if they ever wanted to leave again.  
He actually had to beat all of the council clowns' asses if he wanted to win his portal gun back and it was just rickdiculous.  
They would regret making him do that and the only Rick who would regret this whole thing even more would be that Mysterious Rick that was responsible for this whole mess.  
C-137 was going to pay this guy back, no matter what it took – not only because of his portal gun, but also for what he had done to his Morty.

_"If you want to know about the rules and details of the game, just ask someone from the staff from Morty Inc." Riq IV had said with a smug grin._

_The rest of the council clowns wore a matching expression on their faces._

Apparently the Morty Day Care and the Morty Games Coliseum were owned by Morty Inc., but there was also Salesman Rick's (the official Pocket Morty Shop) and the Morty Healing Center and they would also be free to ask for advice at any of those places.  
Those were all the shops that had been specifically set up for the Morty Trainers whether they were newbies or veterans in the Morty training business.

Rick looked around the plaza in the main atrium that they were standing at after they were more or less kicked out of the building where the Council of Ricks resided in, being surrounded by busy Ricks and their Mortys as well as some other alien folks and he couldn't contain his frustration any longer.

"I really fucking hate this place!" he groaned aloud.

* * *

Rick C-133 and his Morty looked around the busy plaza that had Ricks, Mortys and some aliens roaming about.  
They had followed that ominous Morty to the Citadel of Ricks, but now what?  
How where they supposed to find one Morty in this mass?  
C-133 had to congratulate the little bastard for finding the possibly best hiding place for a Morty in the entire multiverse.  
It would be like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack. The only difference was that finding that needle would have been far easier for Rick even if the damn thing would have been a toothpick.  
He didn't even know if that Morty was still on the Citadel, but then again this was the best hiding place that he could ever get so C-133 hoped that the boy was indeed still here.

"Fuck! Finding the little shit here will take forever…" The Rick groaned out loudly.

They continued to walk over the plaza, C-133 trying to look out for a Morty with a wounded arm since he remembered that the other seemed to have broken his arm before he fled from the scene. However, after seeing a bunch of wounded Mortys walking around and even almost running into a little group of Mortys who looked like they had several broken limbs led by one Rick who looked absolutely fine, he figured that even that wouldn't be a good enough indicator to find the culprit that he was searching for.

"If I at least knew from which dimension that Morty was…" C-133 mumbled, getting quickly tired of the sight of hundreds of yellow t-shirts.

He happened to overhear another Rick who was close by complaining loudly. "I really fucking hate this place!"

"Tell me about it. This place sucks!" he agreed.

C-133 wasn't one of those Ricks who frequented the Citadel, much less thought about staying here for a longer period of time or even come to live in this place.  
Actually, he pitied the Ricks who were stuck here a little, but then again they were responsible for their own misery and didn't deserve something like pity.

"All of those stupid Ricks are nothing but dumb sheep that try to cling to their terrible ideas and idealisms, which are nothing more than poor illusions." C-137 continued.

"That's exactly what I always say, too." C-133 agreed fully to that.

It was nice to know that there were still some Ricks who had their head on right and saw this the same way that he did.

However, this opinion also raised an interesting question. "Why are you even here if you hate this place so much?"

He didn't want to sound like a hypocrite, but at least he had good reason to be here no matter how much he hated the Citadel.

"Some Rick-asshole stole my portal gun and then gave it to the Council as a present who now force me to participate in this stupid "Pocket Morty Game" to get it back." Rick C-137 summed the story up. "And why are you here?"

The question was warranted.

Rick C-133 tried to give the short version of his story, too. "A Morty had hired a bunch of Mercenary Ricks to kidnap and kill my Morty and wanted to us me as his replacement Rick."

Even though both Ricks left out some very important details in their stories, Morty C-137 could see how the other Morty became really pale.

"Are you okay?" he asked the other boy, sincerely worried about the other brunet's health.

He himself had been through a rather traumatic event just recently thanks to a Rick and he figured being kidnapped and almost dying at the hands of a bunch of Ricks was probably not less stressful than that.  
Morty C-133 kept silent for a moment and looked at the other Morty as if he was contemplating about something before he finally gave in.

"Uh… could you… I mean could we… have a little talk, over… a-alone?" he asked.

Seeing, as their Ricks were still busy discussing about one thing or another, he shrugged and quietly excused himself before walking over to the side of the street to an empty corner where it was a bit quieter.  
After looking around almost as if he was paranoid and making sure that no one would listen in on their conversation, Morty C-133 finally started to talk.

"Um… actually… those Ricks that had kidnapped me… they—they… they raped me…" he confessed.

Morty C-137's eyes widened in shock before his face took on features of sympathy.

"You know… I was also raped by this Rick who is responsible for us being in this mess." He answered.

Somehow, both boys felt as if a little weight was lifted from them by talking about what had happened to them and having something to share even if it was undeniably a very horrible experience.  
It somehow just felt good to be able to talk with someone who understood exactly what they themselves had gone through.  
Without really noticing it another Morty suddenly joined them and made himself known.

"So, you were both victims of Rick-rape?" he quipped in.

Both C-dimension Mortys looked at the newcomer with big eyes.  
While both of them looked like typically "standard Mortys" with their short brown hair, yellow shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers and having no significant features that differentiated them from another, the Morty that had approached them looked considerably different.  
At least he was dressed differently in that he wore brown pants, a green vest over his yellow t-shirt and a white and dark-gray baseball cap that had the letters "D'n'J" stitched on the front in a blue-green color.

"Um… have you been, too…?" they both wondered aloud, simultaneously.

"Oh, no. I'm not a victim of any Rick-crimes…" He instantly declined that notion. "…but I have just recently assassinated a Rick, Rick S-121, who put up a front of being a Morty-activist, but was actually a mortyphile. He had adopted Mortys from the Mortyphanage and raped them or forced them to work in illegal Morty brothels."

The C-dimension Mortys looked pretty shocked at that information.  
To think that something like that was happening on the Citadel… well, after what they had just been through, it was not impossible to imagine it, but it was shocking to think that such organized crime was going on.

The Morty continued, "I'm currently trying to investigate more about that since a lot of Mortys in other facilities have also gone missing. Even though this isn't an actual mission. I mean, I wasn't hired by anyone to do this, I'm just doing this because I want to put a stop to Ricks abusing Mortys like that and my Rick lets me be in charge for this investigation."

"It's pretty cool that your Rick lets you be in charge." Morty C-133 said in amazement and C-137 also nodded his head to that.

He knew that his Rick would never let him have the command unless he evoked his right to a Morty adventure, but even then he would constantly complain and give him a hard time.

The other Morty sighed. "That actually just means that my Rick is gonna sit back and do nothing while I have to do all of the work. So yeah, it's not as amazing as you think it is. Anyways, could you tell me more about what had happened to you? I want to know if your cases could have something to do with these illegal brothels or the Ricks that are behind it."

Morty C-137 and C-133 looked at each other at that before C-137 was the one to answer first.

"I'm not really sure if the Rick that had kidnapped me has something to do with it. I mean, he had some weird dungeon underneath his hideout that was full of Mortys, but it didn't really seem to be a brothel…"

Of course, he couldn't be too sure about that, but if it had been a brothel then there should have been at least other people – well, customers – too, right?

"The Mercenary Ricks that had kidnapped me were actually hired by a Morty and they were actually supposed to "get rid of me" so I don't really think that it has anything to do with the incidents that happened to other Mortys." C-133 answered now.

The investigating Morty agreed – at least to what Morty C-133 said, he still wasn't entirely sure about the Rick from C-137's story.

"Do you guys have interdimensional mobile phones?" he asked. "I would like to add you to my contacts so I can maybe ask you for more information if I might need it. Also, I would inform you in case I hear anything about that mysterious Rick or Morty. By the way, I'm Morty from dimension K-4872." He finally introduced himself.

"Ah, I'm from C-133. And yeah, I would like to add you, too."

"Same. I'm from C-137."

"Oh, you're the Morty from the "Rogue", huh?" K-4872 noticed.

C-137 blushed a little at this, not aware that he and his Rick were actually _that_ famous amongst other Ricks and Mortys.

"It's funny that our dimensions are pretty close to each other." C-133 only commented towards C-137.

The Mortys exchanged their numbers, actually happy that they were able to make friends with someone even if that someone was literally themselves, but they didn't mind that fact.  
Surely, it would be benefiting all of them if they would try to work on their individual problems together and the C-dimension Mortys also really wanted to help K-4872 clear up this case.

Having just recently been victims of rape themselves, they wanted to prevent something horrible like that to happen to other Mortys.  
They were also very grateful that K-4872 would try to help them finding the culprits behind the crimes that were done to them, too.  
Not that they didn't have any faith in their Ricks, but you could never have enough help…

The boys were so engaged in conversation that they didn't notice a Rick approaching them.  
He wore frameless, rectangular glasses, a black long-sleeved sweater with a blue short-sleeved and unbuttoned button-up shirt over it, brown slacks and black sneakers and he held a bag in his hand that smelled like burgers, fries and chicken nuggets. Apparently, he had gotten it from McSanchez – at least that's what was written on the bag in big, yellow letters.

"Made some new friends?" Rick K-4872 asked his Morty.

The boy turned around to his Rick and tried to explain that it was a bit more than just that. "These Mortys were in some incidents that might have something to do with the case that we're investigating."

Well, the "we" was used very loosely here, seeing as Morty was the one bothered about this whole thing while his Rick acted as if he could care less – probably because no material award was awaiting him for their troubles.  
Figures…

"I think that at least this "Mysterious Rick" sounds very suspicious since he seems to have kidnapped a bunch of Mortys and…" His Rick cut him quickly off.

"_Or_, he's just a Morty trainer who wants a complete collection." He intervened. "I know that this is your investigation and all, but if you want some advice from me: you should stick to the leads that you have now, since they're more valid."

Morty K-4872 huffed a little, but had to agree. So far, he only had vague assumptions about this Rick and those could hardly be considered a lead.  
Still, he didn't want to rule out any possibilities.  
Promising the other Mortys again that he would still keep an eye out for the Rick and the Morty that they were looking for, he left together with his Rick to go and have lunch while going over the information that he currently had again.  
He knew right from the start that cracking this case would not be an easy task, still he felt that it was something that he needed to do and he wouldn't back down until he exposed the criminal who was behind this illegal Morty brothel ring even if the authorities of the Citadel had failed in doing it so far…

* * *

While the Mortys had been talking amongst themselves, the C-dimension Ricks had a conversation of their own.

Looking around and seeing aliens and Ricks alike being followed by flocks of Mortys, C-133 couldn't help but comment on it.

"This whole "Pocket Mortys" business is really weird. I didn't even know that this was a thing since I usually don't visit the Citadel. Makes looking for the Morty that I'm searching for even more of a hassle…"

"Well yeah, who would have thought that having alternate versions of our grandson fighting each other would become so popular? At least this lets me make good use of my newest invention." C-137 claimed.

"And what's that supposed to be?" C-133 asked skeptically.

With a little triumphant sound, C-137 held up his _great invention_.

"This is my Mortytector. It locates every Morty in the multiverse and shows me not only their position, but also their dimension. This little baby also helped me when that Asshat-Rick had kidnapped my Morty."

A scowl was instantly on his face again at the memory of that guy.  
C-133 mused silently that he could certainly use something like that, too, even though he had been very capable of finding his kidnapped Morty again without it thanks to the implanted microchip.  
Still, at the moment, it wouldn't be of any use to him because un-fucking-fortunately, he didn't know from which dimension that little fuck he's looking for was.  
However, he should probably get around building a similar device just in case that another Morty would try to replace his grandson again…

After the two Mortys had returned to their Ricks' side, C-137 cut the conversation short. "Well yeah, better get going if I ever wanna get my portal gun back."

"Yeah, I'll never find that little shit by standing around here either." C-133 agreed.

"Let's go, Morty." Both Ricks said simultaneously as they each went their separate ways, off-white lab coat billowing behind them.

* * *

Rick C-133 was a genius and he was a clever enough man to know that he won't be able to find that Morty just on his own.  
So, he actually called one of his acquaintances, Rick P-78, who agreed to meet him at one of the bars on the Citadel.  
Entering the appointed pub, C-133 didn't have to search long for the other.  
The P-dimension Rick easily stood out with his different clothes, – the gray, sleeveless lab coat and the black long-sleeved turtleneck shirt underneath it as well as equally black slacks that had emptied weapon holsters attached to them and a pair of brown boots – the scar that went vertically over the left side of his face, and that optical prosthesis in his left eye socket.

Easily, he slid on the stool next to his acquaintance and ordered a whisky for himself that the Morty bartender quickly served up.  
His Morty took a seat next to him and only ask for a glass of water in his stuttering voice.  
P-78's Morty sat on another stool by his Rick's side and sipped something that looked like orange juice.

"So, what's the big favor that you're asking for?" The Rick with the mechanical eye asked.

"Long story short: I'm looking for a Morty."

P-78 raised one side of his eyebrow and looked pointedly to the brown haired boy at his side. "Don't you already have one?"

C-133 sighed exasperatedly. "_Ha ha, very funny_. I'm looking for a specific Morty, dipshit."

The other Rick wasn't offended by the rude name-calling. He only waited for C-133 to continue.

"H-hey, Morty? Why don't you go and play with that other Morty while I have a talk here, all right?"

C-133 didn't need his grandson to overhear this whole thing. It was worse enough that he had been through it already so no need for him to relive the memory while he was retelling it to the other Rick.  
His Morty only nodded and slid a few stools over as he waited for the other Morty to join him.  
As Morty A-22β6 looked up at his Rick with a questioning gaze, the older man only nodded and the boy joined his fellow kind.  
While the Ricks were starting to talk in hushed voices, the Mortys started a conversation of their own.

"So… you're Rick P-78's new Morty?" C-133 started a bit awkwardly.

"Y-yeah. H-he's a-a really nice R-Rick…" A-22β6 stuttered.

The extreme speech-impediment wasn't lost on the other, but he decided to not comment on it. "Um… why did you get a new Rick? I-I mean, what happened to yours— i-if you don't mind me asking?"

Morty C-133 had hurried to add the last part, not sure if the other would be even comfortable talking about it.  
Even if most Ricks were assholes, many Mortys still loved their grandfather and would be very sad if he died. Especially if it was a very traumatizing death.  
It wasn't exactly as if Mortys were asking to get reassigned to other Ricks. Most of the time the Council of Ricks would decide such things over the boys' heads, often enough even taking Mortys from dimensions where no Ricks lived anymore just to have a few spare ones that they could redistribute to others whether those Ricks had once an affiliation with the Citadel or not.

A-22β6 had been quite for a while and just as C-133 thought that he wouldn't answer, he began to speak. "M-my R-Rick is d-dead…"

Even though that much was obvious even to Morty C-133, he still offered him his condolences "I'm sorry."

"N-no. Don't b-be." A-22β6 continued. "I-I-I w-was the o-one, who k-killed him."

"WHAT?!"

C-133 quickly realized that that came out too loud even before he had the eyes of every Rick, Morty and alien in the near vicinity on him.

"S-sorry." He apologized to the other patrons with a blush on his face.

With wide eyes, he looked back at his conversational partner, silently urging him to continue. Aside from having a hard time believing that this extremely skittish Morty would have the guts to even do such a feat, he was obviously even more interested in getting to hear about the 'why'.  
Sure, Ricks were generally sociopathic madmen (some a little more and some a little less), but that didn't automatically warrant that they deserved to die – even if they had the talent to get their Mortys quickly riled up to the point that they wished to do it with all the bullshit that they were putting their grandsons through.

"…H-he…" A-22β6 swallowed heavily before he seemed to find the strength in his voice to continue. "He was a-a r-really bad R-Rick. I m-mean r-really _really_ b-bad…"

The boy nervously stroked over the long yellow sleeves that were covering his arms.

In a slightly squeaky voice he continued "…h-he abused me… a-and r-raped me even…"

Sympathy immediately surged through C-133 at those words.  
It was certainly one thing to be abducted by some other Rick and have this happen to you, but having your actual Rick being such a sick bastard – having to endure that over and over again for who knows how long he had to live together with his grandfather – was an even more horrible fate.

"Jeez, I'm really sorry about that…" he muttered, not sure how to respond to that. "Uh… you know… I kinda know what that's like…"

The other Morty finally dared to look up into his eyes. He had turned his face away and stared at the ground after they had started with the topic of his original Rick.

"R-really? Y-you d-do?" A-22β6 asked in surprise.

It still wasn't easy for C-133 to talk about it even if he had told Morty C-137 and K-4872 just recently. The memory was still fresh in his mind and so far, his Rick hadn't given him a break so that he had some time to think about or even properly process it yet.  
The time that he had scrubbed his skin raw in the shower didn't quite count…

"Yeah, just… just recently I-I was kidnaped by some Ricks and they also…"

His voice trailed off at the end, but he didn't need to finish the sentence.  
It was obvious what he wanted to say and A-22β6 sincerely felt sorry for his alternate version as well.

"You know, apparently this seems to be a weird "trend" among Ricks…" C-133 continued after a little bit silence.

"Huh?"

"Well, I heard from another Morty that a lot of Mortys are recently getting kidnapped and sold off in illegal Morty brothels."

A-22β6's eyes widened at that. He seriously didn't know that something like that was happening at the Citadel at the time. His Rick certainly hadn't mentioned anything about that.  
Morty C-133 explained all the details to him and added him to his contacts while also giving him the numbers of the other Mortys.  
Since Rick P-78 would help them out, his Morty was also more than willing to do whatever he could to help.  
However, A-22β6 still felt like he needed to add something.

"Y-you kn-know, not a-all R-Ricks are l-like that though… T-there are a-also s-some really n-nice ones who d-don't just u-use Mortys."

He hoped that his words would cheer the other Morty up because he knew that it was the truth.  
Since he had met Rick Q-89, who was a Rick that did have sex with Mortys, he knew that this alternate version of his grandfather was very different and a really nice guy. Morty A-22β6 really liked him and the only Rick that he could ever like more than him was P-78.  
He tried not to blush at the thought, but he felt a definite warmth in his chest at the thought.

The Ricks meanwhile were still whispering in their conversation, C-133 laying everything of what had happened down on table.

"So, you see. I somehow have to find that little piece of shit." He finished his story.

After taking another sip from his drink, he added, "I know that you're the only Rick who I can ask about this because you got some experience of your own how dangerous a Morty can be. Most Ricks wouldn't ever consider a Morty a threat, but this mysterious Morty is gonna mean serious business. All of us Ricks should always keep in mind that a cocky Morty means a lot of trouble…"

P-78 had listened quietly through the whole story.  
With one last gulp, he finished his drink and put the empty glass back down on the counter.

"'Kay. You can count me in. I'm gonna help you hunt that little shit down." He said.

As he looked over at A-22β6, he thought that this wasn't only to help out an old friend, but also for the safety of his own Morty.  
He wouldn't know what he'd do if something like that would happen to his little boy…

* * *

The C-137 duo made their way towards the Morty Day Care.  
Morty was honestly not quite sure what to think about that particular shop.  
However, after having been to a daycare that was full of alternate versions of his dad – the Jerryboree – he probably shouldn't feel surprised that Ricks would come up with the idea to do the same thing for Mortys.  
Still, he couldn't say that he didn't feel at least a bit offended about it…

For Rick, any place to ask was as good as the next one and seeing that there was a long line at the Morty Healing Center and Rick somehow wanted to avoid Salesman Rick's shop, he picked the place that had the shortest line – and there the last customer just left and C-137 wouldn't even have to wait at all!

As he approached the Rick, which had a permanent frown on his face and a toothpick between his lips, he could actually see some scribbles on his right arm.  
Rick C-137 recognized it as a formula that he had just come up with last week – it was a more efficient recipe for dark matter fuel.  
As he and his Morty came to stand in front of the counter, the other moved the toothpick to the corner of his mouth in a routinely manner to freely talk without obstructions.

"Welcome to Morty Day Care!" Storage Rick said in a monotone voice from always having to say this same sentence a few hundred times a day, day in and day out. "What do you want? Store, Withdraw, Bootcamp or Combine?"

"Wait? You can actually combine Mortys? Seriously?" Rick C-137 asked.

Wow, what kind of Rick had come up with that sick idea?  
He was certainly a genius!

"Yeah, if you have two Mortys of the same type, you can fuse them together to get an evolved Morty who is better and stronger than the two previous ones… You're a noob, aren't you?" he asked, eyeing first Rick and then his Morty before bringing his attention back to the Rick again.

"Yeah, I'm new to this whole _game_. Care to explain the rules since the Council didn't bother with it?"

"Sure. It's simple. You just go out there, using the communal portal gate at CentRick Square, which will teleport you to a random, registered dimension. There you can find Morty trainers who will want to battle you and Wild Mortys that you can fight or catch. Also, there is always a Rick who's like the boss of that dimension and who you will have to challenge to win a badge. And in case that you don't have a portal gun of your own, you'll have to beat him to get back to the Citadel."

Storage Rick rattled the explanation down in a monotone voice as if he was in a hurry to get this whole thing done.  
Why did the noobs always have to ask _him_ about the rules? There were many other Ricks to bother around…

"Okay, that sounds pretty simple, but how do I do that whole Morty catching business? I mean, I can't just walk up and ask if they're interested in joining me or something like that." C-137 interjected.

He was really **trying** to stay focused even though the rules were easy enough that a little kid could understand how it works, but he was quickly being bored with these explanations and just wanted to have this over and done with as quickly as the Rick behind the counter.  
Go through portal, defeat trainers, catch Mortys, defeat Ricks – got it! It wasn't that hard!

"Of course not. You let your Morty fight against a Wild Morty to weaken them and then you have to plant a Morty Manipulator Chip on them. When the LED on the chip lights up green, you were successful and the caught Morty will think that you're his Rick and will follow you."

"Okay and where do I get an injector and those manipulator chips?"

"Are you for real? C'mon, you're a Rick." Storage Rick inquired with one side his eyebrow raised. "You can make these things yourself. Fortunately, you can find spare parts scattered across the dimensions and workstations are set up all over the place."

Storage Rick suppressed the urge to sigh. Who knows how often he had these conversations already.

"Really?! I have to handcraft all the stuff that I need by myself? That's taking way too long! I-I mean I have stuff to get done here, man!" C-137 complained.

"Well, you can actually buy Morty Manipulator Chips from Salesman Rick, but he's only authorized to sell them to advanced trainers. I know, it's real tough for newcomers, but I guess this is kinda like, you know, sorting the wheat from the chaff. There are so many people, who think that this Morty training business is such a cool thing, but as soon as they find out how much work is behind it all, they just lose heart and give up. So, you know, all of the ones that are still participating in it are hardcore enthusiast who take this seriously."

At least Storage Rick wished that would be the case, but he worked so long in this job that he knew better by now.

"Well, at least you already have a Mortypad." Storage Rick commented at seeing the former iPad in the other Rick's hand.

"This is a Mortytector." C-137 corrected with a crease in his eyebrow that showed his displeasure about thinking it was the same thing that every other Rick ran around with.

Storage Rick looked unimpressed.

The scientist from the C dimension continued. "Okay, fine. Anything else that is worth knowing?"

Rick C-137 was getting annoyed and just wanted to get started so he could get this whole ordeal over with soon.

"Not really. Oh, but one more thing: you can only have five Mortys with you at once. If you capture one more, a Courier Flap will get that one and bring it to me for storage. So, if you want that one in your team, you will have to come here first and exchange them…" It was kind of a stupid rule, but Storage Rick wasn't making the rules here.

Before Rick C-137 had the chance to comment on that, his Morty suddenly interposed "Why five?"

"What?" both Ricks asked back in unison and looked down at him with an equal, questioning, but also annoyed expression on their faces.

"Why is it that you can only be accompanied by five Mortys at a time? That number seems pretty random to me."

"It's not random. Everyone knows that you don't need more than five Mortys." Storage Rick replied dryly.

"Exactly, Morty! Because it's enough to have five Mortys and-" Rick C-137 stopped in the middle of the sentence as he remembered the reaction that Morty had when he told him about his experimenting with five Mortys and a jumper cable – which was, of course, completely _hypothetical_!

His Morty looked expectantly at him to finish his sentence yet looked like he probably wasn't going to like what he would have to say and so he quickly continued "Anyways, no one needs more than five Mortys. There never was a Rick who had or needed more than five Mortys and that's canon."

"So, you mean to say that you would only need five to win our portal gun back?"

"Yeah. That's what I said, Morty. And now shut up!"

Turning back to the Rick behind the counter, he asked "Oh, by the way. Do you happen to know a Rick that is nicknamed Mysterious Rick? Black hat, red cape…"

Storage Rick cut him off and was almost tempted to ask who didn't know this guy by now. "Yeah, I know the weirdo but haven't seen him since he withdrew all of his Mortys. Figures that he probably stopped playing and released his Mortys in the wild."

Of course, Storage Rick was sure that that was not the case. There was no way that that mortyphile would actually do that, but seriously, it wasn't his business what that Rick did.  
If he had to guess, he figured though that Mysterious Rick must have rubbed the newbie the wrong way and probably tried to get his Morty.  
His guess was pretty much confirmed as he could see how uncomfortable the little Morty looked about the current topic.

"Well, okay. That's too bad then, 'cause I thought that I might meet him here. Whatever. Let's go, Morty." Rick C-137 had heard enough and just wanted to get into battle now.

He actually had to collect a shitload of badges if he wanted to fight against the Council and he had to catch some Mortys to get himself a decently strong team so that he could beat them up properly.

"No, wait, Rick. I still have some questions." His Morty interjected once again and turned towards Storage Rick. "I-I've heard that there is an increase in Morty abductions on the Citadel. Have-have you heard anything about that? I mean, do Mortys happen to vanish from here, too?"

Storage Rick's eyes narrowed the slightest bit at the question and suddenly the Guard Rick that was stationed at the electric fence burped loudly and shifted a little in his stance, momentarily distracting the keeper of the Day Care and causing him to quickly glance over to the guard for a brief moment before he finally answered.

"Don't worry. Morty Day Care is the safest place that any Morty could ever be at on the Citadel. I'm leading a proper business here and got nothing to do with that so nothing of the likes happens here. But, hey—you know, if you're looking for suspicious Ricks there are plenty around." Storage Rick started to gesture with his hands.

Pointing over in the direction of the Healing Center that was literally next door, he continued, "Have you met Surgeon Rick yet? That guy's not quite right in the head. You know, I've heard that they won't assign any Mortys to him anymore and he's been degraded from his position as a Paramedic of the Citadel's Militia because of the same reason. I also think that he shows a little _too_ much interested in Mortys."

Storage Rick paused a little in his speech to make a face and shifted his toothpick from the left corner of his mouth to the right one.

"I also see sometimes Mortys going in, but never coming out again, not even their corpses or whatever. It's also quite suspicious that there are bloody Morty clothes in the dumpster behind that place every so often. I don't know what you think, but I tell you that the guy has Morty blood on his hands and not just from healing wounded ones."

Morty made a face at the mentioning of the blood, but Storage Rick didn't stop there yet.

"He also seems to be in on something with that Rick from Morty Labs, so that guy is probably worth checking out, too. Those guys are not the only ones though. I think you should also check out Salesman Rick from the Morty Item Store. The guy's always all smiles, but I have a feeling that he's hiding something. And you know he's the only one that has free limited access to those Morty Manipulator Chips. For all we know these things could be used to easily kidnap Mortys."

He seemed to pause a little bit in thought while Morty C-137 tried to process all the information that he received. His Rick was barely listening to all the droning.  
Why was his Morty suddenly interested in that crap that had absolutely nothing to do with them?

Storage Rick seemed to remember one more thing. "Oh, I guess you should also check out Dirty Rick. I mean that guy has "Dirty" in his nickname and he certainly is a really shady guy. You can find him at the Morty Games Colosseum."

"O-okay. Thank you."

While all of that information was a bit overwhelming, it was a starting point.  
Since he doubted that his Rick would give him the time to check all of those places out, he would just have to contact the other Mortys and tell them about this.  
Maybe they could share the work and figure something out by working together. The thought made him a little excited.

"What-what is this suddenly about? Morty kidnappings?" his Rick asked in confusion.

Oh, right.  
He should probably let his Rick in on this whole thing that was going on. Morty could imagine that he probably wouldn't help out and complain that they don't have time for this crap, but maybe he would be in a good enough mood to allow Morty at least to investigate a bit on this.  
He just had to bring up that the others would also be helping out with looking for Mysterious Rick. It wasn't a completely one-sided thing – they would all help out each other!

As Morty C-137 explained to his Rick what was going on, the scientist already decided that this thing wasn't really his deal and he would only focus on getting back his portal gun and find that Mysterious Rick to pay him back for what he had done.  
If his Morty wanted to play detective and help some of those other Ricks and Mortys then he could do that, but he shouldn't count too much on Ricks help for it.  
Since they were entangled in their own conversation, none of them paid any more attention to Storage Rick as they left.

The Rick of the Morty Day Care waited patiently till the duo was out of sight, watching them with narrowed eyes.  
As soon as they were gone, Storage Rick called one of his Worker Mortys over.

"Hey, Morty. Come over here." he called out.

In an instant as if he could only mean one Morty in the entire Day Care with that, a Blue Shirt Morty was standing at his side.

"Take over the counter for a moment. I need a smoke break…"

* * *

Bonus:

***extra to the conversation between Morty K-4872, C-133 and C-137***

"So, what kind of facilities are you talking about exactly? I mean, what's that Morty orphanage?" C-137 asked now curious since he wasn't too well versed with the Citadel.

"We're calling it Mortyphanage here." K-4872 corrected.

"Yeah. What's up with those places?" C-133 also wondered about that.

"The Mortyphanage is one of the three main facilities where Ricks can get new Mortys. Even if Ricks hate to admit it, they need us Mortys—"

"Yeah, because of our brainwaves…" C-137 threw in.

K-4872 looked at him funny now. "Well, that probably, too, but it's not the only reason. Ricks are very depressed and self-destructive so they need someone who looks up to them and cares for them. But like I said, they try to deny it, because of their stupid pride."

Both C-dimension Mortys nodded. They understood now even if they probably haven't ever really thought about it like that.

"Anyways…" K-4872 continued his explanation. "…the Mortyphanage is where they put obviously the orphaned Mortys. Those who not only have no Rick, but also no family anymore. Sometimes, they don't even have a home dimension that they could be returned to.

Now, you would think that those Mortys are the first ones who would be reassigned to a Rick, but most Ricks think that these Mortys are "broken". Aside from that, there's very strict requirements that needs to be upheld by the Rick, not to mention the fee that needs to be paid.  
Many Ricks think that it's not worth it, so these Mortys are the least desirable ones and don't get adopted very often.

Another facility where Ricks can get Mortys is Morty Academy. Mortys who have lost more than one Rick are generally being placed here because the Council thinks that if the Ricks, who these Mortys are assigned to, keep dying, it's somehow their fault. Not because Ricks are suicidal and self-destructive and can make mistakes sometimes that get them killed.  
So, they put those Mortys into a learning program, where they basically try to shape them into perfect companions for Ricks. And the only thing that Ricks need to do it is to register themselves there within a certain time span. Aside from that fee again, of course.

Obviously, these Mortys are the most desirable ones and everyone who manages to graduate will definitely be assigned to a Rick.  
The assignment is determined by the time that Ricks need to show up for the waiting line and for the Mortys by how well they did on their graduation certificate. It's basically that the first Rick in the line will get the first Morty that gets called up and the first Morty that will be called up will be the valedictorian and the grades will go down from there.  
The only downside about it is that Ricks will only be able to get a Morty on graduation day.

And then there's the Morty Reassignment Center. This used to be the first and only place where Ricks could get a new Morty – or receive one for the first time if they happen to be from a dimension where they never had a Morty to begin with.  
Even up to this day, it is the main facility where Ricks will go to get a Morty. This is also the only place where Ricks won't have to pay a fee if they happen to have a free Morty voucher that the Council sometimes hands out as a reward."

C-137 emitted an indignant sniff at the mentioning of the voucher.

K-4872 continued, undeterred. "The Center does have a storage place for Mortys that have been picked up after their Ricks died, but they also relocate Ricks to rickless dimensions where they integrate themselves into the Smith family as the new Rick of that dimension.

However, most Ricks dislike the Reassignment Center because of all the paperwork and long waiting times. They can also not choose which Morty they are assigned to as you could at Mortyphanage or to a certain degree at Morty Academy.  
Some Ricks can also get a ban if they lose too many Mortys within a short amount of time. So that's that."

Both C-dimension Mortys looked with big eyes at the other brunet as they let all of the new information soak in. They certainly hadn't been to the Citadel often enough that they knew anything about its inner workings.

Knowing about all that made them also realize that Ricks were really serious in needing a Morty at their side if they put so much work behind assigning them.  
In fact, Ricks seemed to need Mortys more than Mortys actually needed Ricks…

* * *

AN: This first chapter is more of an intro. The real story begins from next chapter onwards and you will see the structure of how this is all going to be told.  
Also decided to add these little bonus things at the end, because I've done that for another (later) chapter and thought "why not do it for every chapter of this story?" Sometimes they will be informative (like the one in this chapter) and add to the world building and other times they will be just funny.  
I hope you'll like this story so far and will enjoy what's later to come :)


	2. Chapter 2: Is that a Morty?

AN: This chapter we're finally getting into our first Morty battles. I'm not really good at writing action scenes so I apologize in advance and won't be angry if you just decide to skip those parts ^^'

Warning: violence (aka Morty battles), minor character death, Rick/Rick (Lab Rick / Surgeon Rick) smut (rimming, fingering, anal)

* * *

**The Lines Between Ricks And Mortys – Chapter 2: Is that a Morty? / Am I interrupting something?**

"Oh man, Rick. I'm still not sure about this whole "catching Mortys" stuff…"

The C-137 duo was walking over the plaza, their current goal the centrum where the portal was located.

Rick had just miraculously finished building an injector, some manipulator chips and some other random stuff that he thought useful from the junk that Morty had found around the place for him. Obviously, he would let Morty dig through the trash to find that stuff for him – that was the work of an assistant and not the work of a genius scientist after all.

_"Morty, just go and look around on the streets and inside trashcans and bring me whatever is useful enough to build something with." Rick had said._

_"What?! How am I supposed to know what you regards as "useful"? For all I know, you're just gonna complain that I brought you junk when I'm done."_

_Morty wouldn't complain about such a task no matter how dirty it was, but what he wouldn't stand up for was digging for hours through trash bins for Rick when he didn't even know what he was supposed to be looking for._

_"Jeez, Morty! Learn to think for yourself for a bit!" His grandfather was immediately frustrated with him again. "I'm not asking you to bring me some leftover food or dirty paper dishes, but some spare parts. Wires or anything that is metallic – heck, even—even some alien bacteria would be useful."_

_So, that's what Morty tried to look for – working better when he was given directions to follow anyways – and picked up empty cans and whatever else fit the description of what he was supposed to look for._

_While Morty had been trash hunting, Rick had been taking a look at Salesman Rick's manipulator chips, having a hard time convincing the man to at least just _show_ him the goods even when he knew that he wasn't allowed to buy them yet – not that C-137 was even too fond about venturing into the guy's shop.  
Long story short: Rick got a glimpse of those chips and was able to build a few himself with the trash that Morty was able to find – it was really fascinating what some people threw away…_"

I mean, if these Mortys are lost in those dimensions shouldn't we actually help them instead?" Morty finished voicing his current moral troubles about the Ricks' newest pastime.

He had been actually starting to think about this whole "Pocket Morty Game" thing – the fact that Ricks and aliens were capturing Mortys (altering their minds with manipulator chips) and then forcing them to fight against each other just for entertainment – and it didn't sit well with him.

"Morty, by catching them we're helping those Mortys. I mean, think what would happen to them if we just keep letting them wandering around. They might starve or another Rick could catch them and might do unthinkable things to them. Think about that mystery Rick who kidnapped you. What do you think he might do to those Mortys if he catches them, hm?" Rick interjected.

The number of Rick guards was slowly increasing the more they proceeded, which meant that they must be getting closer to the communal portal – not that you would not be able to find it with all the signs pointing in its direction along the way.

"I-I guess you're right, Rick." Morty mumbled as memories of what Mysterious Rick had done to him slowly seeped into his mind.

Since they were constantly on the jump, Morty hadn't found a moment yet when he could have properly reflected on the traumatizing experience.

"I'm always right, Morty. So, you see, we're helping them and they'll help us getting through this stupid "game" – it's a win-win situation. And hey, I don't have to tell you that you'll be the leader of the bunch, right? So, let's do this!"

They finally came to the landing where a bunch of armed guards were standing gathered and as they were close enough one of the guards gave them – or more specifically Rick C137 – a scrutinizing look-over before activating a small machine via one button press.  
As soon as he had done that, a green vortex opened, the swirl and humming of the portal being the only real familiar thing that they had encountered in this entire place yet.

Morty looked up at the huge metal ring that had produced the portal.  
It reminded him of a Stargate from the movie and the series of the same name.  
Being a fan of all sorts of sci-fi shows Morty remembered that he had watched it when he was younger even though it had some scary scenes.  
Now that he thought about it, Rick's portals were a lot like that "gate to the stars", too. They just didn't have those fancy effects.  
Still, He couldn't help but be a little disappointed that the metal ring that was around the portal didn't rotate when the guard had activated it.

Without waiting for an invitation or further instructions, the duo entered the rip in space that would lead them to a random dimension and as soon as they passed through, the portal closed again.

* * *

Since Morty C-137 had called the other Mortys in the meantime and informed them about some possible suspects that they should probably investigate a bit more, the boys had all agreed to share the work and Morty C-133 was the one that volunteered to check out the doctor Ricks from the Healing Center and Morty Labs.  
Obviously, his Rick wasn't too happy about their involvement with this whole Morty kidnapping thing – it was none of their business and they were busy with other stuff.

"You do realize that we're actually here to look for that weirdo Morty and don't have time for this crap." Rick C-133 did point out to his Morty.

However, his grandson kept insisting, "C'mon, Rick. The others are helping out, too, and will inform us if they see or hear anything about the Morty we're looking for. And maybe we also find something out about him when we're asking around. At least it can't hurt to do it, right?"

"Yeah, fine. I guess you got a point…" the scientist finally gave in with a sigh.

Actually, it wasn't such a stupid idea to poke around at the clinics, seeing as the little shit had been wounded the last time that he had seen him.  
So it wasn't completely unlikely that he would visit a doctor who would take care of that for him.

Therefore, the C-133 duo was approaching the Morty Healing Center first and Rick couldn't help but asses Surgeon Rick's crazy look and questionable outfit from afar already.  
Thankfully, he couldn't see past the counter or he would have seen how short the white latex skirt actually was as well as the straps of the garter belt that suspended the white latex stockings or the teal colored, heeled sandals that made his long legs look even longer still – in short Surgeon Rick's outfit looked like a cyber version of a latex nurse outfit and was definitely more fetish wear than actual work clothes.

"So, you must be Surgeon Rick." Rick C-133 greeted.

"Why, hello there. Yes, I am. How can I help you?" Surgeon Rick greeted cheerfully.

C-133 peered behind the doctor and at the interior of the small clinic and spoke up again. "You've got no Mortys here? I would have expected a cute little Nurse Morty at least."

Surgeon Rick's face fell a little "Yeah, they don't let me have any Mortys here. Actually it's been prohibited to assign Mortys to me anymore."

"Why's that?"

"That's none of your business, Mr. Customer Rick." Surgeon Rick's smile looked a bit strained and his voice sounded menacing despite the fake-friendly tone.

"So, anyways…" the medic continued. "You gonna heal your Morty now or what? Actually he looks quite healthy to me."

Surgeon Rick looked with slight disappointment at the Morty at Rick's side.  
Morty felt a shiver run down his spine and resisted the urge to hind behind his Rick's back.  
Screw it! He jumped behind his Rick and dug his hands in his lab coat.  
He had enough of creepy Ricks after what he had been through. Until now, he didn't even get a break to come to terms with what had happened to him and until his Rick found the culprit behind his kidnapping, he probably wouldn't get around to digest it properly – if he ever will.

"No, we're fine right now. Just doing a bit sightseeing, checking out the locations. You know, stuff like that." Rick C-133 explained with a fake smile.

"Okay. Well, when your Morty gets hurt just bring him to me. I'm going to fix him back up for free. Courtesy of the Council of Ricks of course." Surgeon Rick offered, sounding sincerely nice now.

"Will do." Rick C-133 mumbled.

Trying to bring it up as casually as he could, he finally cut the small talk and asked what he really wanted to know about, "By the way, did a suspicious Morty come by here?"

"Suspicious? How so?" Surgeon Rick asked confused.

"Well, I mean a Morty that's just different from other Mortys."

"Hah! All Mortys are different from one another. There are not two Mortys who are the same." Surgeon Rick replied with conviction.

"Well, he should have had a broken left arm. You had any like that in today?" he tried to specify.

"Sure. I've got at least twenty today alone." The doctor replied with a smile as if they were just casually talking about the weather and not injured Mortys.

Yeah, that didn't help him at all. It was obviously just a waste of time trying to get some useful information out of the crazy medic.

With a sigh and a mumbled "Yeah, whatever…" Rick C-133 turned around and left for good this time.

"Bye and have a nice day~" Surgeon Rick sang in his shrill voice, his creepy grin back in place and waving a latex-gloved hand.

Both Rick and Morty had to agree that this guy was uncomfortably freaky.

"That guy is not quite right. And I'm not just talking about his weird personality or clothing." Rick said to his Morty "I wonder why he's prohibited from getting a Morty assigned to him?"

His Morty nodded at that "Yeah. That certainly sounds very suspicious…"

"Well, since the Morty Labs are pretty close by, how about we check out the other nutty doctor over there. Can't be much worse than this one…"

Morty didn't really feel like encountering another Freak Rick, but he followed his Rick anyways.  
He had promised the other's to check them out and so far the suspicions didn't seem to be entirely for nothing…

* * *

They wandered around in this oddly looking dimension, which had mint-green grass and trees with pink leaves.  
Morty C-137 looked in awe at their surroundings, which looked so different from earth and not only because of the odd color palette. The smells of peppermint and cotton candy wafted through the air coming without a doubt from the nature that was surrounding them.  
Rick, however, was completely focused on his Mortytector, not looking up for a single second.

He went in a straightforward path to a row of trees and only then did he bother to look up from his device.  
Motioning for Morty to be quiet, he slowly nudged himself between the trees and peeked at what was behind it.  
Morty also slid up next to Rick, trying not to make any loud noises as he walked over the fallen and piled up leaves from the trees and supporting himself on the trunk so to not trip over an extended root.

There, walking on a patch of grass and looking rather lost was a kid.

"R-Rick? Is that a Morty?" C-137 asked in a careful whisper.

"Let's see: brown hair, yellow shirt, blue jeans. Yeah, I'd say that it's obviously a Morty. I-I mean— just take a look! What else could it be, Morty?!" Rick replied also in a hushed whisper but clearly annoyed tone.

"But t-that doesn't really—" Morty started, but was quickly interrupted by his grandfather.

"Look, Morty. We're here to—gotta have to catch us some Mortys, okay? So, let go of your planetary mindset, stop being judgmental and let's just gonna do so-some catching now."

Without waiting for a reply, Rick left the safe hiding place to approach the Wild Morty, his own Morty following a bit reluctantly.  
Startled by the rustling of the leaves, the Wild Morty turned around to see the advancing duo and the Morty's eyes widened before the instinct to flee kicked in.

"Oh great." Rick groaned, but started to run after the fleeing Morty nonetheless. "Looks like we'll have to chase it until it's tired itself out, Morty."

"'It', Rick? Really? 'IT'?!" Morty complained about the phrasing.

They ran over patches of grass, weaved between some trees and even followed a small, pebbled path, before the Wild Morty was forced to stop.  
Panting heavily from exhaustion the poor thing had reached a dead-end as thick shrubbery blocked off any means of escape.

Morty himself was panting heavily from all the running, but felt bad for the other Morty.  
He could clearly see the fear in the Wild Morty's eyes.

"Finally. That Rick from the Day Care had said that we need to weaken Wild Mortys before we can catch them, so – attack, Morty!"

"Aw, geez…" Morty complained but approached the other Morty.

Still not wanting to fight against one of his own kind, he wanted to try a different approach and lifted his hands up a little to show that he meant no harm.

"H-hey, there…" he started, but didn't come very far as the Wild Morty lunged at him and managed to throw him to the ground. "Ouch!"

"What the heck was that, Morty? That's just embarrassing." Rick immediately criticized.

And that was probably true because any attempt at peaceful conversation was pretty much pointless at the moment.  
The Wild Morty was acting like a cornered animal now and not holding back at attacking Morty C-137.

Rick watched the entire scuffle from the sidelines and could tell that the Wild Morty was clearly stronger than his own.  
Just as Morty C-137 was short of passing out, laying on the ground with the other Morty sitting on top of him and about to deliver the final blow, did Rick actually step in.  
In a swift motion, he pressed the injector to the Wild Morty's temple and watched the red LED on the attached Manipulator Chip blinking on and off a few times before it turned green.  
The newly captured Morty's stare was blank as the chip was probably working on rearranging the memories and Rick hoped that it was working properly.

Obviously, it should work properly because this wasn't even one of the chips that he had crafted, but actually one that he had stolen from Salesman Rick.  
Not that his own chips wouldn't be able to work. He just stole that one, to check out how this thing was built up because it was always easier rebuilding something that already existed instead of having to start from scratch.  
Which wasn't saying that Rick couldn't do that, but he really didn't have the time for all that crap.

"Morty?" he carefully addressed the newest addition to the team to make sure the chip really did work.

"Yeah? What is it, Grandpa Rick?" the freshly caught Morty asked back.

"Wow. You really listen to the name 'Morty'?" Morty C-137 now asked, having recovered a little bit from the brutal, one-sided battle and got to his feet again.

"Why wouldn't I? You listen to the name 'Morty', too, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah, but that's not really your name, is it?" C-137 asked, but gulped at the antagonizing look he received in return.

"Well, it's not really your name either, right? You're name is actually 'Mortimer', yet you listen to the nickname 'Morty'."

"Yeah, w-well… that's true. What is your actual name though?"

"My name is Morticia. However, I'm fine with being called Morti even though no one in my family has started to call me that before Grandpa Rick came to live with us." Morticia confessed.

At the mention, she looked back to Rick, but suddenly her eyes went wide.

"Um, Rick?" she asked.

Rick did feel uncomfortable at that look. Did the chip not work properly, after all?

"Yeah?" he urged here on.

"Wh-where are your boobs?"

Rick and Morty's facial features derailed at that.

"WH-WHAT?! Obviously, I don't have boobs! I'm a guy, not a chick!" Rick yelled almost indignantly, the hint of a blush on his face.

Was Morticia's original Rick a female Rick or something?

"Y-yeah, I know. But remember that you actually made it so that you had boobs and said that you did it so that I wouldn't feel so bad about being a female Morty anymore? And you were so proud of them, too. I mean those were some huge knockers."

Both Rick and Morty looked at her as if asking if she was serious about this.  
It made her a little nervous and definitely uncomfortable.

"B-but I guess it's better for your back if you don't have them anymore. I mean, i-it's not like I'm complaining." she decided to quickly drop the subject.

* * *

The walk to Morty Labs was short since it was just in the neighborhood.  
Of course, these facilities were all located close to each other to save the trainers the mileage and also to keep up the sales.  
All they had to do was walk down some steps and then turn around the corner and the building of nutty medic Rick number two was already in sight.  
As they waltzed up to the counter, Lab Rick seemed to be just finished with his last job.  
He handed a Morty over to his alien trainer. The poor boy looked somewhat dazed and completely disoriented.  
Morty C-133's heart immediately went out to him, but the Morty's owner already dragged him away – probably off to more Morty battles.

Tearing his eyes away from his unfortunate alternative counterpart, Morty looked back up and looked around the so called Morty-Lab – and instantly regretted it.  
He cringed at the sight of a brain in a glass jar, eyeballs still attached to it and staring blankly into nothingness. In another jar was something, which looked like a Morty-embryo or something and he wasn't sure if he even wanted to know what it was here for.  
Aside from that – and some other jars that contained eyeballs and who knows what else – an assortment of questionable medications like "Mortynol" for example littered the workspace and a bunch of capsules that he had seen in the Blips and Chitz machines as well as some Petri dishes and even some of those manipulator chips.

A calendar that hung on the wall however caught his interest.  
Not exactly the fact that the calendar stated that it was the 11th of Ricktober today – though it was interesting to know that the Citadel had its very own calendar system – and also not the notes that Lab Rick had scribbled on certain dates, but for the fact that a picture of Surgeon Rick was decorating it.

After his uncomfortable examination of the business, he turned his attention to a grinning Lab Rick. The medic completely ignored him though and was focused on Rick C-133.

"Hey, there. How can I help you? Your Morty needing a memory wipe?"

Rick C-133 looked like he was actually considering taking him up on the offer and maybe he was really contemplating it.  
Wouldn't that be the easiest way to help his Morty? To just erase that traumatic experience that he had to suffer from? Even if it meant that, he had to lie to his boy?

"Nah, just doing a little sightseeing. I was actually wondering what your shop is about. So, you wipe Mortys' memories? Is that it?"

"That's part of it, yes." Lab Rick answered, not sounding offended by the other's very insulting-sounding statement. "I can wipe Mortys' minds or trigger forgotten or even erased memories. So, if there's something you want your Morty to forget or to remember, you're in the right spot here."

"_Wow_. Do you have a lot of customer's because this doesn't really sound too exciting?" Rick C-133 was not impressed.

"More than you think, actually. Aside from Morty trainers, I've got my hands full with the Mortys from Plumbubo Prime 51b. Those Plumbus Slaves need some regular mind wipes."

Morty looked alarmed and wanted to ask about that. Plumbus Slaves? Regular mind wipes? What was going on, on or in Plumbubo Prime – he honestly had no idea what Plumbubo Prime was even supposed to be. Was that a planet? A different dimension?  
His own Rick snorted and wore a look of disgust on his face. Looks like he knew what this was about.

"Yeah, well whatever. Did a Morty without a trainer come by here today? He should have had a brok—a wounded arm."

Lab Rick looked at him with something like disbelieve. "No. Why? Did one run away from you? For malfunctioning manipulator chips, you should go and see Surgeon Rick to fix that. Or you could go to Salesman Rick for a refund. But if that Morty is really wounded the Healing Center would be your best bet."

"Do you know him personally?" Morty suddenly spoke up from behind the safety of his Rick's back. "I-I mean Surgeon Rick?"

Rick L-54 looked down at him for the first time, making a face of surprise as if he hadn't noticed him being there until now.

"Yeah, I do know him. We've both been working at the Citadel's Medical Research Facility before we took on these jobs." He admitted.

"So you know each other pretty good?" Morty carefully treaded forward.

The medic huffed a little laugh. "Yeah, you could say that we know each other _very well_."

"T-then… do you also know why he's prohibited from Morty re-reassignments?"

Lab Rick's smiling face dropped instantly and the playful mood turned to ice in a matter of seconds.  
He leaned forward, coming closer to Morty's face who froze up in fear, hands digging deep into his Rick's lab coat, completely forgetting that there was a perforated glass window still separating them. The boy had a deer-caught-in-headlights-look on his face.

"That's some very personal information, you know. And it's not really my place to tell." The medic's tone sounded dangerous, almost threatening.

Even to someone with the disability of not being able to read between lines, it would have been obvious that he just said "That's none of your fucking business!" without actually saying it.

Morty fought the urge to 'eep' in fright and just hid more behind his Rick's back, almost regretting to be so forward and asking as he did.  
However, this also made the medic fishier and Morty couldn't help, but suspect that the two doctor Ricks are somehow working together.  
At least they were both sharing this secret and that was suspicious enough as is.

Lab Rick cleared his throat as he stood to his full height again and looked back at Rick C-133. "There something else you want to know or can I go back to my work now?"

He pulled on his leather gloves as if to make a point.  
C-133 matched his attitude with a sigh and a slightly agitated look on his face, seeming equally irritated.

"We're fine, _thanks_."

With that he turned around, one hand on his Morty's back to urge him to move.  
He was getting really frustrated that Lab Rick also didn't seem to know anything about that mysterious Morty. C-133 had as many traces as before – namely none.

"Hey, if you ever need to wipe your Mortys memories, you're welcome any time." Rick L-54 shouted after the retreating duo.

It made Morty feel somehow uncomfortable. The very thought that there was Rick technology that could do that sort of thing… Ricks being able to control what Mortys got to remember and what not.  
A shudder ran through him, as his imagination went wild.

Rick didn't turn back or comment on it.  
He only patted Morty's back slightly where his hand still rested that had pushed the boy in the direction that they're headed…

* * *

It was only a few trainer battles in that Rick quickly realized what a good addition Morticia was to their team.  
She easily proved that she was so much a better fighter than Morty in those few battles that the scientist really thought about renouncing what he had said to his grandson previously and make Morticia the leader of the bunch.  
Who knew that the slight difference in gender could make such a huge difference?  
It probably didn't really have to do with gender, but that's what Rick would be sticking to for now.

Beating just another weak trainer and his pathetic Mortys to the ground, they found themselves slowly approaching the battle ground of this dimension's Rick.  
Morty was currently ignoring how the scales were tipping and that his grandfather was down talking him more and praising the female version of himself above everything else, clearly favoring one of the two.  
It wasn't like he didn't notice it, he was just too busy pondering over the call that he had received a short while ago.  
Morty C-133 had called and teleconferencing all of them as he shared his gatherings from investigating the Medic Ricks.

_"Unfortunately I couldn't find out any specifics, but both Ricks from the Healing Center and from Morty Labs are definitely freaks and very suspicious. Surgeon Rick is definitely the crazier one between the two and they both share some secret that they won't reveal to anyone. It's about the reason why the surgeon isn't allowed to have any Mortys assigned to him anymore. Whatever this is about, the two clearly seem to be working together somehow. I'm sorry that I couldn't find out more yet, but I'll definitely try to keep it up…"_

_The other Mortys found that as suspicious as C-133 did and they all promised to keep some track on both of the medics and that they would try to look into it more if they found the chance and time…_

Morty wondered if they really already found the culprit – well, at least someone who was behind the brothel ring. Of course, there was still the search for Mysterious Rick and also that dangerous Morty…  
C-137 got drawn out of his thoughts as they walked up a small flight of stairs and into the arena, ready to face their first Rick (Boss) battle.  
Morty was actually shocked as he looked their opponents over.  
Ignoring the odd-looking Mortys, he actually observed the Rick more closely.

Actually, he would have thought that all Ricks would be cocky bastards that would seem a lot more intimidating, but this one looked rather… pitiful.  
This Rick looked far older than any other versions of his grandfather, the wrinkles like deep valleys in the ashen skin and bags hung heavy under his eyes.  
But that wasn't what was so shocking to Morty C-137, also not the skull that the other scientist was clutching tightly in his hands.  
No, it was the open display of emotions that laid bare on this Rick's face.

He actually looked like he would start to cry any moment and his gaze was fixed on his two Mortys, making it looked like he wanted to do nothing more than to apologize to his grandsons over and over again.  
Their first Rick opponent was Guilty Rick.

Rick C-137 stepped forward and said "Okay, let's make this qu*oouurgh*ick."

Guilty Rick finally looked up to his opponent, clutching the skull in his hand that was that of a Morty, the slightest bit tighter.

"Actually, I'd rather not fight. I've seen so many horrible things already, I do not want to see more Mortys getting hurt…"

C-137 smiled smugly. "Pfft. Fine with me. Then just hand over the badge and give me a portal and we're outta here without anyone getting hurt."

Guilty Rick sighed loudly. "I'm afraid, I cannot do that. The rules prevent me from it."

C-137 facial features flipped back to a frown "Well, then we gotta battle. Morty get in there."

Hesitantly Morty stepped forward.  
Guilty Rick only sighed again before he sent his own Morty into the ring.  
Morty C-137 looked his opponent over. It was a very odd-looking Morty.  
The tiny creature looked like a Morty in an almost embryonically state as his hands were in its most rudimentary form and its feet were absent as if they hadn't developed yet.  
The pink jelly-like substance that was surrounding it only added to the helpless-look that it emitted.

"Be careful, Test X1." Guilty Rick said to his little partner, looking worried for his little companions health and safety.

"Rick. I-I can't do it, Rick. I can't fight against it—him." Morty said as he looked at the other's big eyes.

"Argh, Morty!" his Rick groaned in frustration and slapped his hand on his face. "Aren't you the most useless turd ever? Whatever, just get back here. Morticia, you go in and crush him."

As Guilty Rick saw the look of determination and lack of mercy on the female Morty's face, he panicked a little and decided to also switch out his Morty.

"Test X64, you go in."

Even if it was a wise decision of Guilty Rick to swap out, correctly sensing that Morticia was a tougher enemy even his stronger Morty didn't stood a chance.  
The Test X64 certainly put up a fight, attacking Morticia with body slams and weird pitiful screeches and howling noises, but Morticia was still stronger than that.  
She fought back with fist and even teeth as she bit her enemy, throwing him to the ground and jumping on him to pummel him with her fists before he would throw her off again.

Rick C-137 cheered her on between shouting out commands to her while Guilty Rick also spoke commands but watched mostly worried.  
With one last powerful punch Morticia came out as the victor, towering over he fallen and dazed opponent while she was still panting heavily.

"Oh no, Test X64." Guilty Rick mourned and grieved over the loss of the fight.

The Rick carefully check for his wounds, accessing the damage as he apologized and stroked the Jell-O outer case.  
The dazed Morty gave a few pitiful screeches that made his Rick's heart break.  
Morty Test X1 came forward now, moving back into the ring.

"Oh, nonono, Morty. You don't have to do it. We can forfeit this battle." Guilty Rick said, now even more reluctant than before to let his littler Morty fight.

The Morty gave a few noises as if to tell his Rick that it was all right and he wanted to do it.  
The moment was so touching that it brought tears to Guilty Ricks eyes.  
Rick C-137 rolled his eyes at the overly dramatic display of emotions and affection.

"Morticia, come back here. You did good, girl." Rick said as he saw that the fight had taken a bit out of her and she was wounded and panting still.

He didn't doubt that she would be able to finish the other opponent off, too, but he wanted to give his grandson another chance.

"C'mon, Morty. I'm generous enough to give you a second chance at this. Rip him apart."

Morty stepped hesitantly forward and looked at his determined opponent who really seemed to have an entirely different opinion on this battle than he did.  
Despite its confidence, the creature still looked innocent albeit weird and Morty still couldn't find it in him to cause any harm to it.

"Jeez, Rick. I-I still don't think that I can do it…" Morty said as he looked with curled brows over to his opponent.

"C'mon, Morty! What the fuck?! What is wrong with you?!" Rick was getting peeved – 'Such an ungrateful, little bastard!' – and got more and more aggravated by the second. "Y-you know, if you keep that up I'll just leave you at the Day Care, Morty."

"Yeah, seriously. What's wrong with you?" Morticia now also started to chime in. "Just do it!"

"Yeah, Morty! Just do it, you little pussy. Aren't you embarrassed that a girl version of you can do this so much better?"

Rick continued to lay verbally into him and Morticia also continued going at it, their voices starting to overlap as if they were trying to outdo each other at beating him down with words.  
The verbal abuse, coupled with the built up stress from everything that had happened in the previous battles – and most likely from the events that had even lead them here – was starting to get too much.

Morty may had been preoccupied with his thoughts on the events of the other Mortys investigations, but it didn't mean that all the insults that he received from his Rick since Morticia had joined them were just forgotten. The boy was at his limit – having finally reached the breaking point – and suddenly he started to see red.

Flipping out, Morty suddenly screamed and ran at his enemy, furiously attacking the seemingly defenseless Morty-Embryo-Thingy that didn't stand a chance against him.  
He kept pounding, laying into his enemy for several minutes even after it had stopped moving already.

After something that felt like an eternity the red sheen lifted from his vision and he panted heavily as he looked down at his poor victim.  
The pink Jell-O-like membrane had been almost completely liquefied and still clung to his hands, yellow shirt, pants and face and the Morty inside that jelly-like outer case had been beaten to a pulp, laying on the ground and only giving an occasional twitch and making the faintest pained sounds.

As he slowly realized what had happened while he was still regaining his senses, his Rick commented, sounding slightly proud "Whoa, Morty! Who knew that you were such a killing machine? You really need to chill, buddy."

Guilty Rick had abandoned the Morty-skull that he had hang on to in favor of cradling the dazed Test X1 Morty in his arms.

"I'm sorry, Morty. I'm so sorry." He whispered to the small creature.

He wailed as the Morty in his arms took his last painful-looking breath.

"Oh my god! I think I-I killed it, Rick! Uh, him." Morty shouted panicked.

"*Urp* whatever." Rick commented with little interest.

"I'm so sorry, Morty." The grieving Rick mumbled still cradling the deceased Morty in his arms.

"C'mon, I don't have time for this crap. Hand over the badge and shoot us a portal back to the Citadel so that we can move on with this shitty adventure."

Without looking up, the other Rick pulled first a badge from his lab coat and handed it over before retrieving his portal gun and opening a way back for the C-137 Team.  
Guilty Rick never let go of his little Morty and still mumbled apologies while rocking back and forth.

"I'm so, so sorry, Morty. I will join you soon…"

Rick C-137 ignored the poor excuse for a Rick that had crumbled before his feet and went through the portal.  
His two Mortys joined him albeit his Original Morty a bit more reluctantly as he looked worriedly at the defeated Rick that they left behind.

"Rick, do you thing that he's going to do something to himself?"

"Morty, I don't know and I don't care." Rick pulled his flask from the pocket of his lab coat and actually took the time to look back at him as he said, "You know, at best that's going to be a subplot that has no relevance to our story-line."

He continued to walk as he took a sip from his flask.

* * *

Surgeon Rick sat slumped at his counter, just lost in his thoughts when he suddenly saw a familiar figure approaching the Healing Center. He immediately perked up.

"_Mio Amante_." He said happily, as Lab Rick came up to the counter. "What do I owe the pleasure to see you here?"

"Well, I'm having lunch break right now and thought that I couldn't spent my time better than with you, _mia Estrella_." He answered.

"Oh, that's so sweet of you, but you know that I can't close the clinic. Gotta be always open in case of emergencies, you know?" Surgeon Rick replied, looking first delighted but then a little saddened again.

"Well, I don't see any customer's right now." Lab Rick commented after he looked around.

Indeed, there wasn't much going on today and there were surprisingly few pedestrians walking around at the moment. It was an extremely peaceful and quite day today and it actually felt pretty nice to have a breather for once.  
Lab Rick went around the reception counter, taking the freedom to invite himself in.

He quickly took Rick S-422 in his arms from behind and whispered against his ear "C'mon, let us spend some time together."

The way in which Lab Rick had said those words, made it very obvious to Surgeon Rick _how_ exactly he wanted to spend the time with him.

"Oh, c'mon. Never at work, remember?" he answered back, but didn't try to get out of the embrace.

They still had their rule from the time when they both worked at the medical research facility: to not have sex at their workplace – at least Rick S-422 was still sticking to that.

"I don't see you working right now." Rick L-54 commented and began to nip at the other's ear.

"Hngh… _Amante_…" Surgeon Rick moaned softly from the ministrations.

He was slowly giving in.  
After taking one more look around at the plaza in front of the Healing Center and seeing it practically empty, he sighed.

"Okay, but make it quick."

"Hmm, sure. Been awhile since we done it quick and dirty, hasn't it?" L-54 agreed.

S-422 didn't comment further on that and instead dragged the other deeper into the little clinic.  
They went over to a little cot that was for examining the Mortys.  
Enticingly Surgeon Rick bent over it, thrusting his ass out and showing the other exactly what and how he wanted it.

Lab Rick licked his lips hungrily at the sight, his eyes wandered over the patch of shaved and surprisingly smooth skin between the rim of his stockings and the tips of the mini skirt. His hands quickly followed on that trail and lifted the skirt up enough to reveal a bright-pink lace thong underneath.  
Nice!

Rick L-54 grinned wolfishly at the seductive garment. As pretty as it was, it was in the way though and needed to go.  
So, with a quick movement, he pulled the garment down and left the other Rick's bottom completely exposed.

Deciding to have a little fun and foreplay first even though they should really hurry up since they didn't know when the next customer would show up, he gave one of the ass cheeks a hard spank.  
Surgeon Rick groaned from the slap, but didn't seem to mind – if anything it was actually quite the opposite.

The L-Rick's hands then started to knead both cheeks before he spread them wide apart.  
Hungrily, he bent down and started to lick from the surgeon's balls all the way up the crack.

"Mmh… _Amante_. Hurry up!" Surgeon Rick moaned impatiently and wriggled his ass.

Lab Rick smirked in reaction to that. "Don't you know that good things come to those who wait, _Estrella_?"

"If I'd been the kind of Rick who sits around and waits, I wouldn't be a Nobel price winner." The surgeon retorted smugly.

Well, that was probably true.  
Instead of commenting though, Lab Rick bent down again to lap at the other's opening.  
The wrinkly rosette fluttered, giving an invitation to the wet muscle to come inside, which the hungry tongue gladly followed.

Surgeon Rick groaned loudly as his lover was eating him out.  
He eagerly thrusted his ass back as Lab Rick fucked him with his tongue, delving deeper and deeper with each push.

"Hngh… J-just hurry up already!"

"Tsk. So impatient."

As Rick L-54 said that, he pulled off his gloves and pushed two fingers at once deep into his lover's rectum – dry.  
The sudden stretch and burn made the surgeon groan loudly.

"Yeah. You like that, baby?"

Rhythmically Lab Rick stretched the other out who didn't really mind the pain from the lack of lubricant. After all, Rick's were as much masochists as they were sadists.  
After deeming the other ready enough, Lab Rick mercifully retrieved a bottle of lube that he always carried in his apron and slathered up his cock, which he quickly freed from his pants with the slick gel-like substance before positioning its head against the pink puckered hole.  
In one quick, hard thrust, he buried all of his nine inches inside of his lover.  
Surgeon Rick practically howled and even Lab Rick couldn't contain his groan at the feeling of the heat that enveloped him.

For a moment neither of the two lovers moved.  
Then Lab Rick started to lazily stroke with one of his hands over the other Rick's back.

"C'mon. Just get to it, _Amante_. You're really taking your time today…" Surgeon Rick urged and moved to push back against him.

"And you are more impatient today than usual."

Despite his reply, Lab Rick decided not to tease his lover any further and finally moved.  
He withdrew his length till only the tip remained inside just to ram it back in a moment later.  
Like that, he set a hard and fast pace, reaming his lover who was bent over the cot and clutching the upholstery tightly.  
Surgeon Rick moved back, matching each of Lab Rick's harsh thrusts and they both groaned and moaned loudly as they were quickly approaching their orgasms.

The sound of someone clearing his throat was suddenly heard loudly over every other noise the two Ricks made in their little tryst of love.  
Both looked up to see none other than Rick C-137 standing at the counter.

"Looks like I'm interrupting something here." He said with a grin that indicated that he wasn't the least bit sorry for disrupting them.

At his side stood Morty who was covering his eyes with his hands and his head glowed as red as a traffic light.  
Morticia stood on his other side and was also blushing heavily while looking the other way. Neither of them had wanted to see that.

"I'm here to get my Mortys healed up." C-137 continued.

Morty instantly complained, fidgeting. "Aw geez, oh man… do we really have to go in there? Can't you just buy a serum or something?"

"And waste my hard earned Schmeckles that I got from the battles which, by the way weren't won by _you_? C'mon, the healing here is free so move your ass in there already, Morty."

Arguing further with his grandfather would be pointless at this moment so Morty just gave in and walked together with Morticia in the clinic.  
Thankfully, the two lovers had already separated again and fixed their clothes.  
Lab Rick was on his way out, but not before saying something to his boyfriend in a low-tone.

"See you later, mia Estrella."

However, even if it was spoken lowly, Rick C-137 still heard it and quirked his eyebrow after the medic had left the facility.

"So, you gonna fix my Mortys now or what _Estrella_?" he spoke that nickname in a mocking tone.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on it already. You just wait up there in the front." Surgeon Rick answered before finally focusing on the Mortys.

"C'mon, get out of your shirt and hop up so that I can examine you." He said to Morty C-137 while motioning to the cot that he had been bent over just recently.

Morty visibly cringed at the thought of having to sit there while being half-naked and getting examined by the creepy-looking doctor.

Surgeon Rick saw this reaction and exaggeratedly rolled his eyes. "Just get on it already. It's not like it's contaminated or anything."

After all, he didn't get to cum so nothing was ruined – well, other than his mood…

* * *

After he was examined, healed, cleaned up and even given some clean clothes to put on again, Morty C-137 had decided to inform the others about his newest "discovery".  
He was able to get all the Mortys on teleconference again before he reported the news.

"Okay, so the Medic Ricks are definitely weirdos, but I think I have uncovered their big secret now. It seems that these two are actually having an affair with each other." He explained. "Uh… you guys don't wanna know how I found out about that…"

"S-s-so, does t-that m-mean that we-we can already r-rule them o-o-ou-ut now?" A-22β6 asked.

"I think that we can." K-4872 spoke up now. "I found out why Surgeon Rick is prohibited from Morty reassignments. I've done some research and to make a long story short there had been an incident, concerning the death of a Morty. The whole thing had been a tragic accident though and another incident with a Morty who reported him was apparently just a misunderstanding. So, yeah. I think that we can rule these two out as suspects."

"Okay, got it. Still, thank you for your efforts, C-133." C-137 replied.

A-22β6 spoke up again. "I-I'll check o-o-ou-ut Salesman R-Rick together w-with my R-Rick next."

"Okay. Good luck and take care."

The Mortys bid each other goodbye before they hung up again.  
Morty K-4872 also hung up after the tel-co was over.

"So… Rick-cest, huh? I guess that is a thing, after all…" he couldn't help but comment on the entire affair thing.

"We've all been there and done that at one point…" his Rick answered.

Morty looked with a frown at his Rick. "TMI, Rick. TMI." 

* * *

Bonus:

"Harder, Amante! Harder!"

Gloved fingers dug into the sides of the cot as he held on for dear life.  
His lover was driving into him in a fast pace, hitting his prostate with each powerful thrust.

"Fuck! You feel so good, Estrella!" Lab Rick groaned, his hands gripping those bony hips tighter, sure to leave some bruises.

The two medics moaned loudly, both longing feverishly for release.  
So close, so close…just a little more…

"Excuse me?"

Surgeon Rick groaned in annoyance, his head dropping forward on the cot in defeat. Not again.

"I want to have my Mortys healed. What kind of service is this?" The voice of a Rick complained from the counter.

Lab Rick, despite wanting to do anything but stop right now, halted. That only agitated the surgeon more.

"Is it impossible to get some dick in peace and quiet here for once?!" He yelled frustrated in his shrill voice.

The outburst actually shock the customer Rick and with a mumbled "jeez" he left with his entourage of blushing Mortys. No one in their right mind would want to deal with a sexually frustrated Rick voluntarily…

* * *

AN: I like to point out that we have a side story now that will be accompanying this fanfic. It's called "The Mortys and their Stories" and as the title suggests, it will center on the backstories of the Mortys that Rick C-137 catches in this fanfic. That way you can still get more information and character development if you like without me cluttering up this story too much.


	3. Chapter 3: Rip him limb from limb!

AN: Sorry for the longer break, but if you follow my Twitter account, I said that I would have an eye surgery (eye lasering). No worries, it went okay, but let me give you advise that if you have light sensitive eyes, you should think twice about it.  
In my case, the light sensitivity was so extreme that I couldn't look at a screen (or anything that emits light) without wearing sunglasses and having to take rapid breaks from it, which made my job a nightmare since it consists of doing nothing else than staring at a computer screen for 8 hours straight.  
But it's better now so here we are with the next chapter.

Warnings: more violence (aka more brutal Morty battles), homophobic behavior, attempted suicide

* * *

**The Lines Between Ricks And Mortys – Chapter 3: Rip him limb from limb! / He's trying to kill himself!**

The C-137 team was in another dimension again.  
This one looked almost boringly normal – green trees that you could probably find on earth, too and green grass – if not for the fact that everything was covered by a fine blanket of powdery snow.  
The Mortys shivered a little from the cold, both wearing nothing more than their typical short-sleeved t-shirts while Rick pressed onward, seeming not the least bit fazed by the temperature.  
After trudging through the thankfully not very high snow for a while, they came eventually to a clearing.

"Hey, Rick! There is a Wild Morty! Right over there!" Morty pointed down one of the paths at a scruffy looking Morty who was scavenging a trash can for food.

"Nah. That one looks too normal and *urp* too weak." Rick only said after eyeing the dirty and thin Morty, taking a sip from his trusty flask and proceeding to walk the other path.

"What? So, you don't want to catch him now?" Morty was a little confused.

However, he did throw a glance at Morticia to gauge her reaction.  
After all, Rick just confessed that he caught her because he thought that she was special and strong.  
Only after seeing her impassive face though did Morty realize that she did indeed not catch the praise behind that sentence because she obviously did not know that she was just a Morty that Rick had caught and thought that she belonged to Rick C-137.

"Morty, listen! We're only going to catch so many till our team is full and they better be some good ones, okay? I mean, sure, I would like to do this like the completionist that I am and catch every last one of them and be the very best like in Pokemon, but we hardly have the time for that. We have a plot to move along here, all right? Maybe the author finds the time to make another spinoff where we just catch all of these Mortys, but it's not gonna happen in the main story. Even the backstories of the Mortys that we do capture are told in a different fanfiction just so that the readers won't get bored with tons of unnecessary backstory. So, let's just get going." Rick rants.

"O-okay. Well, I just thought-"

"Yeah, **that's** the problem, Morty…" Rick sighed loudly as he went on ahead.

Morticia patted Morty encouragingly on the back as if to say that he shouldn't take it personally. For as antagonizing as she was to him half the time, she was still a Morty and could empathize.  
So, ignoring the Hobo Morty, the Mortys continued to follow Rick who was keeping his eyes on his Mortytector.  
The device seemed to be leading them directly to a Morty that Rick C-137 deemed worthy enough to catch. It was really in this situation that his invention could truly shine. Not only did it show the position of Mortys, but it also revealed some details about them, showing their stats.  
That way Rick knew exactly where to go and not waste his time with weak Mortys.

It didn't take them too long to finally find what they – or more specifically, Rick – had been looking for. On their way, they had only encountered two alien trainers that insisted on fighting them, which Rick didn't decline and the Mortys were also kind of glad because the battles let them warm up at least a little.  
As they approached their target, the Mortys looked with big eyes at 'it'.

"Is-Is that really a Morty?" Morty C-137 asked, as he looked at the shadowy dark mass that was hovering back and forth on the pathway.

"My Mortytectore says that it is." Rick replied and he had a grin on his face and a glint in his eyes.

This was going to be a good one. He could tell that much even without his Mortytector.  
Time to catch this baby!

* * *

"So, tell me again, why we're doing this?" Rick P-78 asked his little companion as they made their way to Salesman Rick's store.

"T-t-to help the o-other M-Mortys." Morty A-22β6 replied.

"You do realize that we're only here to help C-133 find that one Morty, right?" Rick pointed out. "I don't really see the point why we have to get involved with something that has to do with an illegal Morty brothel ring…"

"B-but, Rick! We have to—have to help t-those Mortys. I do-don't want them t-to suffer like I d-did." A-22β6 protested.

He looked Rick dead-seriously in the eyes.  
The older felt actually a bit taken aback by this. His mind flashed back to Morty's nightmares that he had witnessed as well as the still solid proof of the abuse from his former Rick that littered the boy's skin in the form of nasty scars.  
His little Morty was right. No other Mortys should have to suffer like that.

"Yeah, okay. You convinced me." The scientist gave in rather easily.

He actually had to smile a little.  
This was the first time that he had seen his shy charge showing balls like that and even though he won't ever say it aloud, he was proud of him for that.

They entered the store and both felt a little overwhelmed by all the Morty merchandise that lined the tightly packed shelves and the many rack columns that held all sorts of mostly useless items.  
The entire place felt overly stuffed – maybe even overcrowded although there weren't many customers in here.  
Aside from the duo, there was only a greenly translucent alien that looked like a blob in the store, buying some supplies like serums and manipulator chips.  
It was clearly one of those Morty trainers, but the three Mortys that were standing beside it would have also given it away.

As soon as the alien customer left, Salesman Rick's attention was immediately focused on them – well, at least on Rick P-78.

"Hello and welcome in our store. How can I help you?" he asked in such a friendly manner that it seemed odd.

Rick P-78 looked briefly down at his Morty before meeting the sales clerk's eyes again, "Uh, we're just looking around for now…"

* * *

"Well, c'mon, Morty. Go and attack him." Rick C-137 ordered.

"What? Me?" Morty pointed at himself. "Aw geez…"

He really wasn't looking forward to the confrontation. This shadowy Morty looked creepy.  
What was it supposed to be anyways? Maybe a ghost or something like that?

"H-hey there." He greeted his opponent nervously.

Rick only rolled his eyes as he watched from a safe distance.  
The Shadow Morty turned around and look at his living counterpart with white glowing eyes that looked empty and void of emotion.  
The look made the hairs on Morty's neck stand up. He actually expected the shade to start running off as other Mortys did when they came closer to them, but this one didn't do anything.  
It neither moved to escape nor did a make a move to attack.  
It just kept staring at Morty and it clearly nerved the boy out.

"Dammit, Morty. Just get to it already! Or do I have to swap you out with Morticia _again_?" Rick egged his grandson on.

"Jeez, Rick. I'm not even sure, if I can attack him!" Morty yelled back, getting frustrated and slightly angry again.

Well, how could he? If the Morty in front of him was a ghost then he couldn't even touch him, right?  
Though, he didn't look exactly like a ghost, judging by the way the shadows were swirling and slightly morphing its form minutely, he was pretty sure that this one lacked a physical body none the less.

Morty sighed as Rick only continued to throw insults at him and braced himself.  
Even though he knew already that he would just embarrass himself, trying to do this, he would at least give it a shot so that his grandfather would finally shut up.  
Nervously he slowly approached the specter, not exactly sure, how he should go about this.  
Clenching his eyes shut, he swung his fist at his opponent – and not surprisingly, he just passed through and landed on the ground.

Rick slapped a hand over his face at the pathetic display and groaned loudly before cursing and throwing some more insults and his grandson.  
Even though he just witnessed firsthand that this Morty had no physical body, he was still convinced that even this one could be caught via a manipulator chip.  
It would probably be tricky though…

"Couldn't expect anything less from you, Morty." He spat. "Fine, Morticia. Your time to shine."

Said girl looked slightly confused at Rick.  
Didn't he just see how Morty had passed through that shadowy form? How was she supposed to do something then?  
Her face shifted to one of determination quickly though as she looked at her opponent.

'Don't think about. You just have to do it somehow! Don't disappoint your Rick!' she told herself mentally.

Morty still laid on the ground, but he opened his eyes and rolled over to look up at the shade that was staring back down at him.  
As if the specter suddenly realized that Morty had tried to attack him, his eyes narrowed and he stared menacingly down at the boy.  
Morty knew that he was screwed as soon as he saw the eyes of his opponent shift and was close to peeing his pants as he weakly tried to scramble away.

However, it seemed that he was saved as Shadow Morty's attention shifted to Morticia who tried to deliver a kick at it.  
With a quick movement, the shadows that made up its body lashed out and grabbed the girl's leg.  
The appendage almost resembled something like a black tentacle and effortlessly lifted its opponent up, holding her in the air.  
Morticia squeaked as she suddenly felt herself dangling upside down in the other's grasp.

Morty's eyes widened and he tried to get up from the ground to help her somehow even if he had no idea what he could do.  
Apparently, Shadow Morty could manifest parts of his body so that he could touch and move objects, but he the rest of him still couldn't be touched and therefore Morty saw no real room to attack him.  
He clung to the shadow tendril that hoisted Morticia up in hopes that he could get the other to let go, but obviously, his efforts were very fruitless.

Seeming to grow annoyed with his opponents, Shadow Morty threw both of them on the ground with one whipping motion of the tendril.  
Deer-caught-in-headlights-look on their faces, the duo watched as the specter slowly approached them, ready to deliver the final blow.

Rick used this chance in which his target was completely distracted to press the indicator to Shadow Morty's temple, but unfortunately, he passed through the shadowy mess that made up its body and found his hand including indicator sticking _inside_ the boy's head instead.

"Shit!" Rick cursed, seeing as his plan had failed and realizing that the manipulator chip won't just stick to the boy like that.

On top of that, the Morty had become aware of him, turning his head and the glowing spots that were supposed to be his eyes were staring right at him now.  
The scientist quickly pulled his hand back, feeling a bit grossed out from the experience and couldn't stop his facial muscles from forming a grimace.  
The eyes of Shadow Morty suddenly flashed in a red color and it let out an inhuman screech.  
Within seconds, it started to attack Rick who dodged and made a run for it, but the Morty chased after him, clearly enraged.

Man, this Morty was aggressive as fuck, but it made Rick want to catch him even more now.

* * *

P-78 and A-22β6 were still loitering around in the shop, acting as if they were actually interested in the merchandise while not really looking at any of the items.

"Well, you're the one you wanted to do this so just go and ask him whatever you wanted to ask." The Rick said lowly while grabbing a Morty doll from the shelf and examining it with faked interest.

"Jeez, R-rick. G-give me a m-moment, o-o-okay." Morty whispered back. "I-I don't even no-know wa-what t-to ask h-him…"

Well, he just couldn't go and ask directly if he had something to do with an illegal Morty brothel ring. Even if he did have something to do with it, there was no way that he would admit that to him.

A-22β6 glanced towards Salesman Rick who looked with a smile that looked a little forced at Rick P-78, not letting him out of his eyesight.  
It seemed less like he was watching because he worried about them shoplifting, but rather like he was waiting to be addressed by them.  
He really looked like he wanted to be asked and it made the Morty wonder if it really was a stupid idea to just talk about the topic upfront.

Steeling himself mentally, A-22β6 left his Rick's side and approached the vendor.  
He swallowed heavily and opened his mouth to start talking to the Rick whose eyes finally fell on him – it was probably the first time that he even recognized that Morty was here.  
The fact that the salesman's friendly face had faded to one that looked like a mix of confusion, annoyance and even disgust didn't make it any easier for Morty A-22β6, but before he uttered his first stuttered word, he got interrupted by new customers entering the shop.

Salesman Rick immediately switched his attention to the newcomers, his demeanor instantly changing again and friendly smile back in place. "Hello and welcome in our store."

His face twitched a little though and he stopped his speech, which confused A-22β6.  
The boy turned around to look at the customers that had just entered and found that it was another Rick and his Morty.  
However, they weren't just your usual grandfather and grandson duo – the two seemed to be a couple.  
Their hands were entwined in a way that only couples were holding hands and they were standing very close together, almost leaving no space between their bodies.

Morty A-22β6 stared a little in fascination at the two.  
Of course it wasn't the first time that he had seen a Rick and Morty couple – he'd certainly came across a few of them on the Citadel by now – but while the concept wasn't entirely new to him, he was still very intrigued by it.

Salesman Rick's face had darkened a little since the couple had walked in and his features became more strained, but it went unnoticed by anyone inside the shop…

* * *

The C-137 trio was still chased by an enraged Shadow Morty with dangerously, red-glowing eyes.  
Every kind of obstacle that they tried to bring between them – the occasional shrub or tree – was either just phased through or ripped out of the way by shadowy tendrils.  
If they would keep this up, they would never get around to catching the Shadow Morty because the specter seemed to be tireless while the C-137 team was tiring themselves out fast.

"Shit! We need some kind of plan." Rick mumbled as he barely dodged another attack from the enraged shade.

"M-maybe we need to find its—I mean his body." Morty suggested the only idea that came to his mind.

The Shadow Morty suddenly halted in its chase, its eyes turning white again and it looked sad and lost all of a sudden. "B-body… m-my body…"

Rick used this as another chance and approached it with the indicator once more.  
Carefully, he placed it against the temple, making sure to not push too much and end up sinking in its shadowy swirls of a body again. His tongue peeked out between his lips as he did this in complete concentration.

Thinking that he got proper contact, Rick tried to attach the manipulator chip to it and surprisingly enough the chip did stick to the black cloud that resembled its head.  
They all watched the little light blinking and listened to the beeping sounds, minus the shade, which didn't move an inch.  
The LED blinked green and Rick jumped in the air with joy. It was certainly a rare sight from the old man, but considering this hard fought victory, not all that surprising.

"Hell yes! Gotta try this one out right away. C'mon!" he yelled at his Morty team as he suddenly started to run ahead.

The Mortys tried to catch up with their grandfather that had stormed off like a maniac.  
Only the Shadow Morty seemed to linger behind, watching Rick's retreating back.

"W-why? Why?" it mumbled before it seemed to get determined and also followed the retreating group.

Morty and Morticia both looked surprised as the Shadow Morty did not only catch up, but passed them.  
Maybe it was faster than them because it didn't have to run on short legs and could just float above the snow covered ground.  
It made both of them a little envious, but then again, they preferred to be living creatures with actual, physical bodies.

Rick, still sprinting ahead like a madman, was using his Mortytector to deliberately seek out a Morty trainer that he could challenge to a battle. He really wanted to test out the strength of his newly caught Morty against someone else.  
Relatively quickly, he stumbled across an alien who was in company of only one Morty.

"Hey, you! I challenge you to a battle!" Rick declared.

Usually it had been the other trainers who were always quick to challenge him so it might have seemed a bit weird to see Rick being the challenger this time.  
He didn't bother thinking about that though as he immediately sent Shadow Morty into the fight.

"Okay, Shadow Morty. Rip him limb from limb." He commanded.

The specter looked at Rick for a moment almost as if it didn't understand the command, but then it advanced on the hapless Dog Morty that covered in fear. With the expression that the spirit had on its face, that fear was totally warranted, too.

Without further warning Shadow Morty did exactly what Rick had ordered him to do. His shadowy limbs extended and grasped the furry, lifting it in the air and ripped its limbs off.  
As he let the poor creature drop to the ground again, he also crushed its ribcage for good measure, efficiently breaking some ribs, which punctured the Morty's lungs.

Morty C-137 screamed in horror at the sight and yelled, "Oh my god! That's just overkill!"

Rick meanwhile shouted, "That's what I'm talking about!"

"Are you serious, Rick?!" his original Morty yelled back at his grandfather.

"Oh c'mon, Morty. A visit to the Healing Center and he will be fine again." Rick replied nonchalant and took a sip from his flask.

The Dog Morty didn't look like he would be fine again though, making garbled screaming sounds as his blood spewed in all directions from the wounds were his limbs got severed while his alien trainer stood shocked over him and wailed…  
Rick just took the trainer's money and valuables and was on his way again, not bothered by the sight at all.  
His trio of Mortys trudged behind him, Morty and Morticia still looking quite horrified at the wounded Morty as they passed him…

* * *

The couple was still looking around Salesman Rick's store, unaware that the focus of all other occupants was solely on them.  
Giggling at a comment from the other, the little Morty led his Rick over to the racks where the t-shirts hung.

"What? You wanna buy another yellow t-shirt? Don't you already have enough of those?" the Rick only commented, but still smiled at his charge.

"You're right." The Morty agreed. "Maybe I should go for another color."

He let go of his Rick's hand to search through the various shirts that were not yellow.  
Rick P-78 tried to ignore the pair and continued to feign interest in some collectable Morty action figures – who bought this stuff anyways?  
A-22β6 still had a hard time tearing his eyes away from the duo. He still needed to find the proper words to ask Salesman Rick what he wanted to ask him so he tried to get his bearings back together.  
Since he hadn't been looking at the salesclerk though, he didn't notice how much his looks had darkened in the meantime.

Salesman Rick had trouble keeping the fake-smile up on his face. The muscles were strained so much, that his features resembled more that of a grimace.  
He completely loathed the lovey-dovey display that the couple made, being completely oblivious to anyone else around them.

The Morty would pick some shirts from the rack and held them up to ask his Rick's opinion.  
And at every joked jab that his Rick made, he would giggle. The older was either ruffling through the smaller one's hair affectionately or even hugging him as if to show that his remarks of his choice of clothes were not to be meant seriously.

Then the Morty picked up black t-shirt, which had a white, frowning Morty head and the words "Aww" and "Jeez" written on it and asked as he held it in front of himself, "What about this one? You okay with me wearing this t-shirt?"

"Oh, you know, I prefer you wearing nothing at all." His Rick replied seductively.

The Morty blushed, but also giggled a little again.  
Apparently, this was the last straw because Salesman Rick suddenly saw red.  
He stormed up towards the couple and ripped the t-shirt out of the Morty's hands.

To the surprised and questioning gazes that met his actions, he only answered in a less than friendly manner. "Get out!"

"What?" The Rick asked back, his good mood clearly having vanished like the sun behind heavy rain clouds.

He frowned and moved his Morty protectively behind himself as Salesman Rick jammed the t-shirt back on its hanger.

"I said get out of my shop! I don't want the likes of you hanging around here!"

A-22β6 flinched at the loud voice and looked with wide eyes at the seller. This behavior was completely unexpected.  
Even P-78 stared shocked and caught himself from gaping in surprise.

Salesman Rick glowered at the couple while he pointed his finger to the outside.  
His gesture, body posture and the look on his face made it clear that there would be bloodshed if the duo didn't get out fast.  
The Rick only murmured and pushed his little lover out of the shop.

"C'mon, Morty. We're leaving." His mood may had turned sour, but he wouldn't let this pull him down. Still, he couldn't help, but look back at Salesman Rick as they were halfway out and said loudly "There's always another merch-store."

Salesman Rick was still seething as he watched the couple walk off, holding hands again and looking barely affected by the outburst and unfriendly throw out.

'Jeez, what had happened just now?' Morty A-22β6 wondered while still looking wide-eyed at the salesclerk.

Salesman Rick took a deep breath before he turned around to face P-78, the smile from before on his face again, though it did look a bit shy as he seemed to be a little embarrassed about his outburst.

"I'm sorry that you had to see that. Please continue to look around and don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions." He apologized.

"Uh… sure." The other Rick replied, not sure what to make of what he had just witnessed.

As Salesman Rick made his way back to the cash register that he had stationed himself at, he passed A-22β6 again and frowned down at him.  
The boy lost the last bit of courage that he still had somewhere left inside him to approach and ask this man anything at all.

That behavior rose certainly some suspicion. It seemed that Salesman Rick wasn't such a cheerful and happy person as he constantly pretended to be to the outside world.  
And the Morty would even dare to think that this man might even be dangerous.  
At least it got pretty clear that he didn't seem to be too fond of Mortys.

Nope, a direct approach would not get him any results. He was sure of that now. As sure as the fact, that something was really off with this Rick.  
They would need to change strategies…

* * *

The C-137 quartet was meanwhile in a different dimension.  
This one had orange shrubs and pink, blob-like trees.  
It certainly looked alien in every sense of the word to the Mortys.  
Rick still continued to press happily on, eyes fixed like so often on his Mortytector, but he looked slightly displeased.

Probably no Morty that was considered good enough and would be worth capturing in this dimension, Morty C-137 figured.  
In a way, it was a relief. As much as he hated fighting against his alternate selves in in those trainer battles, he disliked chasing after and trying to catch new ones even more.  
He wasn't even really sure why.

They continued on, obediently following their grandfather in a neat row until Morty stumbled a little and started to complain.

"Oh geez, Rick. I think I'm getting delusional from hunger or something because I think I just saw a big slice of pizza running behind those trees over there. Maybe we should take a break and get something to eat?" he suggested.

"Oh yeah, great idea. I swear I saw something like that, too. We should really make a pause, Rick." Morticia actually backed him up.

Shadow Morty didn't say anything.  
Rick sighed and looked back at his more-or-less-reliable trio.

"Okay, fine. Let's wrap this up and then go and grab a bite at the Citadel." Rick gave in.

Looking back at his Mortytector he tried to figure out where this dimensions Rick was so that they could make a beeline for him and then get out.  
However, this didn't mean that he was going to avoid any of those annoying trainer battles that would await them on their way.  
He wanted all that sweet loot after all.

* * *

After that unexpected display of rage, Rick P-78 and his Morty were outside of the shop, hiding and spying on Salesman Rick from a safe distance now.

"You do realize how ridiculous this is?" Rick said, clearly not very fond of hiding in the bushes next to a Rick statue, right in front of the Council building like this.

If the Guard Ricks found them here, they would get in trouble and he really didn't need that.  
Aside from the problems that would arise and the embarrassment, he also thought that he was too old to be crouching like this behind some shrubbery.

"W-well, he seems ki-kind of du-dangerous." Morty replied, not letting his gaze stray away for even a single second from the suspect.

"'Cause of his homophobic behavior? Morty, I told you before that there are a lot of Ricks who aren't too fond of romantic Rick-Morty-relationships. I may not be one of them, but you had seen that before with that other couple. Maybe the guy went a little overboard there, but you can't expect every Rick to just keep their cool when they have to look at that sort of affectionate display…"

Morty only grumbled a little in response. He didn't understand how his Rick could side with Salesman Rick.  
There was obviously something off with him and he would find out what exactly it was.  
If he had anything to do with the abduction of Mortys then he refused to let up until he found some evidence.

Rick only sighed as he looked at A-22β6's determined face from the side.  
It seemed that despite his usually shy behavior his little Morty could be really persistent in his pursuits.  
If Rick wouldn't actually like that and wanted to help encouraging it a little, he would have probably already called this off and dragged them both somewhere more important.

After all he still needed to help C-133 and find that Morty.  
He wasn't too sure how great the chances where to stumble upon him while hiding in some bushes and keeping sight on a Morty merchandise store.  
But well… one could never know, right?

Unfortunately, nothing of big interest happened.  
There were a few occasional Ricks or Alien Morty trainers that visited the shop, but nothing that was noteworthy.  
Salesman Rick greeted his customers happily, acting like the friendliest and most cheerful Rick ever in existence.  
That display actually started to disgust P-78 a little.  
Ricks weren't really cheerful or happy people. Sure, they knew how to party and how to impress other people with jokes, funny catchphrases and crazy actions, but they were nothing like this Rick.

Salesman Rick seemed pathetic in a certain way even though Rick P-78 couldn't quite place his finger on it.

The spying action wasn't as fun as it always looked in movies and the duo soon became bored.  
Just when even Morty was getting close to dozing off despite his determination and all that, he jerked to full awareness as someone who clearly wasn't just a normal customer entered the shop.  
It was Investment Rick. Morty knew him from the occasional times that his own Rick would seek him out to talk about some financial business.

Morty perked up as the two Ricks started to talk with each other, but unfortunately, they were too far away for him to hear anything about the conversation.  
The only thing that he did notice was that Salesman Rick's face fell quickly.  
Whatever they were talking about it clearly wasn't good news.

As it dragged on, the discussion became more heated and both Ricks were starting to shout at each other.  
Unfortunately, Morty was still not able to make out what they were yelling about.  
Well, it had to be about some financial issues and he really started to wonder about the details.  
Was Salesman Rick broke? Or would he have to close his shop because sales weren't going so well?  
He really had no idea, but all of these examples sounded plausible.

The discussion seemed to end and the banker left the store with a scowl on his face that seemed to vanish pretty quickly again as he started to chat up another Rick that just passed him.  
Morty A-22β6 noticed that Investment Rick's smile looked very different from the one that Salesman Rick always put on. It seemed… he wasn't really sure, but… more genuine, perhaps?

Looking back to the salesclerk, he noticed that his rage seemed to have ebbed off and he just looked very depressed all of a sudden.  
The sullen look on his face made the Morty's heart reach out to him…

* * *

The C-137 team trickled into the fast food joint that was named McSanchez.  
The small restaurant was decently filled with several Ricks and Mortys and the occasional alien that would stare in wonder at its food.  
Since they were stuck at the Citadel, they might as well try out all the restaurants that the place had to offer even if they were cheap rip-offs from well-known earth restaurant chains. They had ate lunch at Rick's yesterday.

"So, what do you want?" Rick asked his original Morty as they got in line.

The Mortys looked up at the wall were all the foods and menus were shown along with pictures to provoke some appetite.

"Um… I want the Morty Menu with a coke." He answered after making his choice.

"'Kay. And you?" Rick turned his attention to Morticia.

"Oh, I'll take the McMorty Burger with eggs and ham, big portion fries and a Morty-Choc-Milkshake."

Rick then turned to the last of his Morty trio "And what do you want?"

…

"Fuck! Can you even eat?" the scientist added after remembering that this Morty didn't really have a physical body.

The Shadow Morty only stared back at him as if the concept of food was completely foreign to him.

"Guess not…"

As it was finally their turn, Rick ordered what his grandkids wanted and for himself a RickMac with Bacon, McChicken Nuggets with Sanchez Sauce, small fries and a Cubra Libra (at least, unlike McDonalds, they served alcoholic beverages here).  
After their order was done and handed to them, they picked out an empty table and sat down to eat their food.

"This "Sanchez Sauce" tastes like a weak attempt at remaking Szechuan Sauce…" Rick complained as his dipped the chicken nuggets in the mentioned condiment and ate them. "Hey, Morty? Have I ever told you about this sauce?"

The Mortys didn't pay his ramblings any mind and ignored him as they continued to eat their own food.

Morty C-137 felt a little nerved out though as Shadow Morty kept floating next to him and stared at him as he snacked on the fries that were part of the Morty Menu.  
A reluctant shadowy hand reached out to lift up one of the golden stripes so that the specter could look more closely at it.

Morty actually stopped eating for a brief moment to watch what the shade would be doing.  
He wasn't quite sure if he just imagined it, but he thought that he saw something like recognition flash in the white orbs of the lifeless creature.

Shadow Morty then lifted the fry to his mouth and proceeded to eat it… only for the food to pass through his body and land on the ground.  
Both Mortys looked at the potato-y snack on the floor and then lifted their heads again, looking at each other wordlessly.  
Before anymore could happen, they were suddenly interrupted by a loud voice.

"I've turned my Morty into a pickle!" One Rick who sat a few tables over, yelled so loudly that he drew the attention of a few pairs of eyes on himself.

"Actually, I've turned all five of them into pickles. Pickle Mortys!" The Rick continued to tell another Rick that he currently had a conversation with.

"Here, have a— take a look." He added as he pulled a glass jar out of his lab coat.

Inside the jar were indeed five Mortys turned pickles who looked like they were quite uncomfortable being wedged in that tight space and they seemed to be complaining, which could however only be heard after their Rick unscrewed the jar.

"C'mon, Rick!" "Cut that out!" "Change us back again!" "This isn't funny!" "It's so cramped, I'm getting claustrophobic in here!" the Pickled Mortys yelled one over the other as the other Rick, who sat at the same table, examined the glass jar with mild interest.

"Makes it a lot easier to lug these little bastards around." Said the Pickle Jar Morty owning Rick with a smirk on his face.

"I've turned my original Morty into a cucumber." Other Rick commented while looking not too impressed and pulled said Morty out of his own lab coat.

"This isn't actually so bad." Commented Cucumber Morty despite the unfortunate state that he was in. "I like cucumbers."

His three fellow Mortys gave their Rick a rather disapproving look though and they hoped that he wouldn't be getting any weird ideas of turning them into veggies.  
Ironically, the Mortys were a Strawberry Morty, an Orange Morty and a Banana Morty respectively.

A Cob Morty who was following his Rick with a tray in hand steered clear of those two weirdos after noticing their discussion.

Rick C-137 decidedly started to ignore those less-than-sane Ricks and drowned their conversation out while focusing back on his burger again.

"Hey Rick, would you ever turn me into a pickle?" Morty asked, feeling a bit unnerved by witnessing the other Rick's craziness.

"Nah. No way would I ever turn anyone into a pickle." He replied absentmindedly. "Unless I really need to get out of a situation that I want to avoid at all costs…"

The voices of the two Ricks still rang loudly through the small restaurant and the Mortys also soon followed their grandpa's example and focused on their food again. Which was probably a wise decision seeing as things were starting to get even more ridiculous with that pair of apparently food-obsessed Ricks at the other table.  
Talk about second-hand embarrassment…

* * *

Morty A-22β6 and his Rick were still huddled behind the bushes and kept watch on the shop.  
Since Investment Rick had left the building, nothing peculiar had happened again.  
There hadn't even been any customers anymore and the artificial sun on the Citadel's sky-screen was starting its slow descent to eventually give way to the artificial night sky.

Still keeping watch and not at the immediate risk of dozing off again since Morty somehow felt more awake than ever now, the boy suddenly noticed something.  
It wasn't really something with the shop since no customer had entered and nothing else had happened. Salesman Rick had started to leave his post at the cash register and had begun to stock up the shelves some while ago and Morty's view had been blocked by shelves then so he didn't see him anymore.

The thing that the boy noticed was more of a feeling though. A feeling that something in the shop was not quite right.  
He stood up from his hiding position, rousing his Rick's attention who had been bored out of his mind.

"Hey. Where're you going?" he asked and also stood up his joints cracking uncomfortably for being stuck so long in the crouch.

"Sum-something is not ar-alright…" Morty only replied, as he got closer to the shop.

As he looked around, he couldn't find the salesclerk anywhere in the vicinity.  
Where could he be? He hadn't seen him leave the store.  
Then Morty noticed a door at the back that was slightly ajar. It led probably to a storage room.  
Morty wondered if he should just ignore his gut feeling and go back into hiding or if he should dare to check.  
For all he knew the Rick was just back there to get some more supplies to stock up the shelves… but what if he didn't.

Becoming brave, Morty ventured over to the door, only paying brief attention to the sign that hang on it and stated "staff only".  
Carefully he opened the small crack wider and peered inside the room behind it.  
Flickering florescent lights lit up the backroom that was stuffed with more shelves and boxes.  
He couldn't see Salesman Rick anywhere and therefore stepped into the room fully now.

Knowing that his Rick was right behind him made him brave enough to explore.  
However, he didn't have to search the storage area for long.  
Just as he rounded one of the shelves, he found the Rick that he was looking for.

"O-o-oh my god! R-Rick! H-he's trying t-to kill h-himself!" he shouted loudly.

Indeed Salesman Rick hung from the ceiling, a rope tied out of Morty cravats around his neck, which hung in a complicated looking construction that was supported by the shelves and the neon tubular lamps.  
The twitching of his body and slightly raspy sounds that he made were an indicator that he was still alive.

Rick P-78 only stood there and looked at the hanging Rick a bit dumbfounded until his Morty urged him on. "D-do sum-something, Rick!"

He followed through then, usually not one to question another Rick's decision and stepping in when one deliberately tried to off himself – even at times when it's not deliberate – and got the other down.  
Since untying the knots didn't work very well, he got out his handy laser cutter and burned through the cloth, which resulted in Salesman Rick dropping on the ground.

The salesperson hacked and wheezed while clutching one hand around his neck where the makeshift-rope had dug in and was quickly leaving a reddish bruise.  
Morty was instantly at his side, kneeling beside him and hands grasping at Rick's shoulders.

"A-are you o-okay?"

Salesman Rick pushed him off.

"Get off me! Why do you even care? You don't know me!" he yelled hoarsely after he got air back into his lungs.

Morty looked taken aback at the rude gesture and words.

"Why did you safe me?!" the Rick addressed P-78 now.

"'Cause my Morty was worried about you." Was the factual reply.

Salesman Rick stared with wide eyes at the impassable gaze of the other.  
It was true though. If his Morty wouldn't have told him to intervene, he probably wouldn't have moved a single muscle to get him down.  
Ricks were pretty impassive in the face of other Ricks' death and while they might fight for their lives in dangerous situations, they could really care less about the misfortune of their alternate selves. Ricks' self-hatred was real and of genuine nature.  
And P-78 was no different from that.

Also, there was an unspoken non-interference codex between Ricks and quite frankly he didn't see the point to stop another Rick from ending his own misery.  
He sure as hell wouldn't want someone else to step in when he was trying to off himself – a thought that he had entertained certainly more than once in the past before he had gotten his new Morty.

With a questioning gaze, Salesman Rick turned back to the Morty now.  
The Morty returned that look with an empathic one of his own.

"Why d-did you d-do it?"

K-57 huffed. "Not like you would understand."

"Tri-try me."

For a moment, there was only silence before Salesman Rick lowered his head and started to speak up again. "It just got all too much, you know. Life on the Citadel just isn't what it was promised us to be."

"Well, duh." P-78 threw in.

Salesman Rick just collapsed more in on himself, looking utterly lost and broken. It was a pathetic view.  
The Rick was surprised as he suddenly felt small arms encircle him.  
Morty was hugging him.  
The gesture seemed so strange, almost alien to him.  
When had been the last time that someone had hugged him or touched him in a way like this?  
He honestly couldn't remember.

Rick K-57 relaxed into the embrace, returned it and closed his eyes from which tears silently started to stream.  
In that brief moment, he started to think that maybe he understood the importance of Mortys to Ricks now.

Rick P-78 just watched the affectionate display silently from the side, his mouth a thin line, but he didn't dare to interrupt the moment.  
Maybe Salesman Rick finally deserved a break. At least the smile that he wore on his tearstained face looked truly genuine for the first time…

* * *

Morty C-137 dreaded the steps up the small flight of stairs as they approached the next "Gym Leader" Rick.  
No matter how often they did this, he still disliked it.  
Heck, he hated all of these pointless battles in general! He still didn't understand why he had to fight against alternate versions of himself in the first place.

A shudder ran through his body as he saw their current opponent.  
This Rick looked genuinely dangerous.  
He wore a red headband and a red jacket, which was unbuttoned and showed his bare and much muscled chest – as well as a very prominent six pack – that was covered by some bandages but still visible enough to him.  
His face wore a scowl and the yellowed teeth that he showed looked sharp as if they had been filed to specifically look like that of a shark.  
This scary monster of a Rick was none other than Karate Rick and Morty was honestly scared that the Rick alone could kick all of their asses without even having to use his Mortys.

At his side were a Karate Morty – probably his original and a pupil in this Rick's dojo – a Renegade Morty that looked almost as scary as his Rick and a Punk Morty.  
Yeah, Morty C-137 wasn't really looking forward to this fight.

"Well, would you look at that. It's a p*uurhg*ny Rick with his puny Mortys." Karate Rick mocked.

Of course, Rick C-137 wouldn't just let that sit on him. "Well, you—you're as dumb—you're the dumbest Rick I ever heard. Clearly, you have no idea who you're up against. I'm Rick C-137."

"La-dee-da." Karate Rick replied with an eye roll, clearly unimpressed and uninterested in that information.

"C'mon, Morty. Get up there." C-137 addressed his grandson now.

"Aw geez, really? Me again, Rick?" Morty questioned.

Didn't he see how dangerous and strong those other Mortys looked? You would think after all the insults he threw at him about how weak and lame he was in almost all of their previous battles on the way here that he would think twice about picking him to fight.

"Of course **you**, Morty. And now quit your whining and get to it. I wanna see you wipe the floor with that second rate Rick's brat."

If he truly wanted to see that, then he had picked out the wrong Morty for it, Morty C-137 thought.

"Let's show them how it's done, Morty." The other Rick said and Karate Morty stepped forward.

C-137 wasn't sure what to expect, but was certainly surprised when the other took a stiff bow. Slightly confused he tried to mirror the gesture, remembering to have seen it in some karate movies and not wanting to appear rude.  
After the opening courtesy was done, Karate Morty took on a fighting stance.  
C-137 certainly had no idea about actual fighting sports – other than the little from some action movies that he'd seen – and therefore didn't even try to get into a fancy looking stance and embarrass himself.

His opponent seemed to wait for him to make the first move so he did just that and approached him, trying to land a punch.  
The other Morty's movements were incredibly quick though and he didn't only dodge the fist, but also spun around and put him in a stranglehold.  
Helplessly he squirmed in the other's professional grip, but to no avail. He had no way to get out of that again.

Rick C-137 only groaned and slapped a hand on his face again. It was embarrassing to see his very own grandson fail again and again.  
The cackling of the other Rick didn't really help his mood at the moment.

"Ah shit! Well, fine. I wanna switch him out."

"No can do." Karate Rick replied. "Morty, finish him off."

Following the command, Karate Morty pushed the other down on the ground and pinned him with his arms and legs that allowed C-137's body little to no movement while he strangled him.

"The heck?! Is that even allowed? I'm pretty sure that's against the rules or something." Rick C-137 complained.

"Since when does the Rogue Rick care about rules? But for your information, there's no saying in the rulebook that we can't do this."

"Hell yeah, you're right! I don't give a fuck about rules. So Morticia, get in there!"

The girl didn't waste her time with any pleasantries but dove right into the battle.  
With a well-placed kick, she attacked the still kneeling Karate Morty and freed her teammate.  
C-137 scrambled out of the way to let his much more battle seasoned alternate do the fighting.

"You're always such an embarrassment." His grandfather said to him as he crawled back on the sidelines, only sparing him a brief glance before putting his attention back on Morticia again to command her through the battle.

Apparently, the girl had been taught some martial arts, too, because she was on equal standing with her opponent. Each punch and kick was met with a like-for-like move and the two seemed to be at a stalemate, neither ready to give the other side the upper hand.  
The balance was only tipped after Rick yelled out one peculiar command.

"Morticia, distract him by showing your boobs!"

She whirled immediately around, her face flushed red. "WHAT?!"

Karate Morty's face dropped, his eyes becoming blank as his lips hung down and resembled a 'w'.

Instead of lifting her t-shirt as she had been ordered, Morticia whirled around again and delivered a kick that hit her opponent in the head.  
Still in shock and having lost his defenses, Karate Morty landed on the ground and the female Morty had no trouble finishing him off afterwards.

Karate Rick didn't look very pleased after the loss of his disciple.  
He gave his grandson a glare that had the potential to kill as said boy crawled heavily wounded back to his side.

"That was a dirty move, Rogue Rick." He glowered.

Rick C-137 smirked. "That coming from the right one. Well, _for your information, there's no saying in the rulebook that we can't do this_."

The other Rick growled and sent his next Morty into the battle.  
Renegade Morty towered dangerously over Morticia.  
For a moment, she looked frightened by her enemy who looked like Rambo-rip-off.  
He was buff with bulky muscles, adorned by battle scars, wore a necklace of ripped off bloody ears on a string around his neck, a very mean scowl on his face and worst of all he stank like old sweat. He was truly intimidating.  
However, since her grandfather didn't lose a word about switching her out, it meant that he was counting on her to defeat this guy.

'Don't disappoint him.' She told herself and scowled right back at her opponent.

Instantly she went to deliver a barrage of kicks to her opponent. Unfortunately, this seemed to do no damage at all, as her enemy stood as unmoving as a mountain.  
He didn't even try to defend himself, just letting her attacks rain on him as if they were merely a light breeze of air.  
Karate Rick cackled at the display. Renegade Morty was his strongest one and never lost a battle before.

Morticia stopped her barrage of useless attacks, panting from the exertion.  
Her enemy took that as a cue that she was done and went to attack himself now.  
He punched the girl without holding back and with a yelp, she flew back and crashed into the ground by the force of the hit.  
Morty C-137 winced and even his grandfather's facial features twitched at sight.

"Ha ha! That's right. Now destroy her, Renegade Morty!" Karate Rick urged his boy on.

Morticia struggled to get up from the ground again, but before she was even back on her feet, another fist hit her in the face, bringing her back down again.  
Like a merciless monster, the bulky Morty continued to lay into the girl, landing punch after punch.  
Morticia wasn't even able to defend herself against all those hits and after a few painful minutes, she laid unmoving on the ground.

Rick C-137 snarled angrily at the loss while his enemy had to rub it in of course. "Hell yeah! You should go and look for some better Mortys if you want to beat me, you dummy."

"This isn't over yet, _Rick_." C-137 replied.

He looked with a hint of worry on his face at Morticia as she limped back to his side, eyes cast down and looking clearly ashamed of herself for losing.

'She's going to be fine.' He assured to himself mentally. 'After this is over, we're off to the Healing Center.'

"Shadow Morty, you're turn."

The specter hovered forward to face his enemy, the stare on his face blank.  
Karate Rick huffed in amusement before he ordered his Morty to also finish off this one.  
Renegade Morty attacked then, but his attacks didn't hit their target because his fists always passed through his opponent.  
Karate Rick frowned at the sight.

"So, this one doesn't has a physical form, huh? You're trying to cheat again, Rogue Rick? Even if you do send in a Morty that can't be defeated as long as you can't defeat mine you're not gonna win either. And don't think I'll give in and admit defeat. We can stand around here and do this for weeks for all I care."

Rick C-137 smirked. Looks like this dumb Rick was underestimating his Shadow Morty.

"I don't plan to play some stupid waiting game with you." – 'As if I had the time for that.' – "I'm gonna win by crushing your Mortys. Just watch this. Shadow Morty, attack!"

The specter let out a deafening shriek that stunned his opponent before he lifted the other Morty up in the air to fling him down on the ground again.  
He kept up this attack pattern until it was obvious that Renegade Morty wouldn't be able to recover from it again. It actually only took a few minutes.  
Well, that was over fast.

Seeing his best Morty lose also punched the smug attitude out of his Rick.  
He bit his lip in frustration, knowing that his Punk Morty wouldn't stand a chance against the shade, but he would send him in anyways.  
No Rick in their right mind would ever go down without fighting!

Rick C-137 grinned broadly, already counting this whole battle as a victory. His opponent had nothing against him and his Shadow Morty.  
He knew that this one would be worth the trouble for catching it!  
However, just as Punk Morty reluctantly shuffled into the ring, Morty C-137 started to speak up.

"Rick, please let me take him on."

He may still have been a bit wounded from the fight against Karate Morty and the opponent looked mean, but he didn't seem to be as strong as his two predecessors. And Morty didn't want to look as if he was a complete loser, seeing as his comrades were both very capable of taking at least one enemy out each.  
Even if he didn't like these battles, he still felt like he needed to prove that he wasn't just a weak nuisance that was dragged around with this group. They were a team and he was a part of it just like the others!  
His Rick looked at him, seeming to think for a bit about it before giving him a nod.

"Shadow Morty, get back here."

Karate Rick looked shocked for a moment before he cackled again. "Why did you send in this complete loser? You could have won this round easily, but you rather wanna embarrass yourself like this?"

However, Rick C-137 only grinned, looking confident. He believed in his grandson and it made Karate Rick's grin drop again to be replaced by a scowl as he ordered his Punk Morty to "Destroy the brat!"

Punk Morty and Morty C-137 stood opposite of each other and each stared the other down without making a move at first.  
The punk looked unimpressed, but let a little grin slip as he went to attack his opponent. Morty could see the change in expression and was able to react accordingly.  
It was true that the boy wasn't really a strong fighter, but through all the adventures that he had been on with his grandfather he learned a thing or two.

All of their troubles had also been honing his reflexes and made him good at dodging even incoming bullets or plasma shots so he didn't have much trouble evading the other's punch.  
Since he found that he had the upper hand – at least in velocity – Morty quickly counter attacked while his opponent was still mid-swing.

Rick C-137 repressed a loud whoop at the skillful move that his grandson made, but grinned proudly while his Rick opponent only scowled more.

"C'mon, Punk Morty! You can't lose against such a pushover! Hand his ass to him!" Karate Rick yelled.

The yelling did seem to serve as some motivation for the punk because on his next try he managed to hit the other Morty.  
Both Mortys continue to fight, not willing to give the other the upper hand. Punches and kicks were exchanged, but not for long as the tough battle finally found its victor.  
The final move that decided the outcome of the fight was made by C-137 who feigned a punch and then went for a kick that rendered Punk Morty unable to continue on.

Even though he was sweating and panting and had several bruises and scratches Morty smiled.

"You did good, Morty." His Rick praised him for the first time, broadening the boy's smile.

To his opponent, Rick C-137 then said, "In your face! My Mortys are great! Now hand over the badge and shoot us a portal."

Karate Rick practically seethed, but obliged and handed over the goods as well as opening a way for Team C-137 to return to the Citadel.

Turning to his own team of defeated Mortys, he reprimanded them in a low and menacing voice. "Don't think that your loss here won't carry any consequences. I've warned you before what will happen if you lose. There's punishment and lots of more training waiting for you."

The boys visibly shook as they picked themselves up from the ground, battered and beaten.  
Morty C-137, compassionate as he was, actually became scared for his alternate selves after he heard the threat and saw how frightened they looked.  
Karate Rick seemed to be quite a sadist.

"Aw geez. I feel really bad for them." He said to his Rick after they stepped through the portal, worry clear in his tone. "Do you think they will be okay?"

Rick only shrugged. "No idea. It's not really my business what that Rick does to his Mortys."

With that he lifted his flask to his lips. He could really care less about the boys' fate.  
Besides, it was true. What a Rick did with his Morty was no one, but that Rick's business.

* * *

AN: In case you're wondering about the missing bonus content at the end, the second hand embarrassment scene is supposed to be the bonus content. It just fit better in the middle than at the end ^^'

And I know I'm completely disregarding types in this story, but see how few fucks I give (I know that in an actual battle Renegade Morty would have probably won against Shadow Morty because of type advantage)… let's just say that Shadow Morty just had a much higher level than Karate Rick's Renegade Morty and pretend that this is legit. And I also know that Karate Rick is not a Boss Rick, but I like the guy and have been using him as my avatar ever since I unlocked him in the game ^_^


	4. Chapter 4: That's just disgusting

Warnings: fanboying, horrible fake accent, more violence, more artistic liberty with Morty battles, also a bunch of handsome Mortys in this one

* * *

**The Lines Between Ricks And Mortys – Chapter 4: That's just disgusting / Time to get your hands dirty**

After A-22β6 had reported that Salesman Rick was most likely not involved in any illegal crime activities, but just an old sad man, who was probably misunderstood, the number of suspected Ricks had quickly dwindled down to only one – Dirty Rick.  
This time K-4872 promised to look into it and he would do it thoroughly.

* * *

The C-137 team meanwhile continued their interdimensional travels to catch more Mortys and gain more badges.  
Once more, they stepped through a portal to arrive at a random place…

"_Oh great_. A fucking cave dimension. _Just lovely_…" Rick groaned.

Indeed, they were inside an underground tunnel system.  
The walls, the ceiling and the floor were made of dirty brown stone and the only source of light came from the lamps that were strung along the ceiling.

The air was stifling and Morty felt immediately claustrophobic even though the cavern in which they stood right now was still pretty spacious.  
It was quickly decided that he disliked this dimension as much as his Rick did.

Nonetheless, the scientist and unchallenged leader of the group pulled out his trusty Mortytector and lead the way.  
They ventured through several tunnels and after they walked around the maze-like lair for more than an hour even Morticia feared that they were hopelessly lost.

It was only after a flash of bright yellow caught the female's eyes that she gained newfound trust in her grandfather.  
This was the Morty that Rick seemed to have been looking for.

Morty C-137 just wanted to take a closer look from a safe distance, but at that exact same moment, the other boy noticed him, too.  
Of course, Morty was expecting the other boy to flee from him like the wild Mortys always did. However, this one brightened up and actually began to run towards him.

The somewhat strange clothes and the slightly delirious look on other Morty's face creeped the brunet out and so C-137 began to ran, too. He was fleeing from the weirdo.

Rick watched the whole spectacle in mild annoyance as the boys were running around him in circles now. Seemingly, he was undecided if it was a good thing that the Super Morty Fan Morty wasn't running away from them so they wouldn't have to chase after him in this damn underground labyrinth or if it was a bad thing that he was actually pursuing his Morty.  
Well, the only bad thing about this was obviously the fact that his grandson was such a pussy again!

Morty C-137 was close to having a panic attack as the Super Fan tried to hug him.

"Please wait! I just wanna cuddle you!" the crazy boy yelled and made a smooch-face.

Instead of having a calming effect, this only made the hunted one speed up.

Rick sighed, not being able to see his pathetic grandson being chased by another version of himself for much longer.

"Shadow Morty. You go in and beat that little turd up." He ordered the black specter beside him.

Shadow Morty didn't waste any time and with a menacing face – even though the only thing you could see were his white eyes – he hovered between the two, efficiently stopping the Morty Fan.

The boy halted and looked with big eyes at him before asking after a few moments, "Are you a Morty, too?"

He didn't wait for a reply as his eyes turned all glazed and starry. "Wow!"

The Morty Fan Morty tried to hug the shadow, but of course, he passed through the non-physical form and landed on the ground.  
With a pout and slightly teary eyes, he looked back up at the specter.  
Shadow Morty decided that he had seen enough of his opponent's antics, but just as he was about to attack the other stopped him.

"Hold on a second!" he said and hastily drew a sketch block and a pencil from his Morty-shaped backpack.

Curious what the other might be trying to do, Shadow Morty held off his attack and only watched in confusion as the Super Fan started to scribble something on a blank sheet of paper.  
It didn't take long before the fanboy was done and presented to Shadow Morty the masterpiece that he drew.  
The content of said picture was of rather questionable nature, depicting what looked like the Super Fan and Shadow Morty in a rather compromising position.  
Shadow Morty made a screech that sounded like an "eep", looking horrified by the art and dashed to hide behind his Rick's back, cowering as if he had been just traumatized.

"What the heck?!" Rick commented on his most violent Morty's behavior.

But then, he also got to see the surprisingly detailed fanart. "Urgh! That's just disgusting!"

He may have seen and done a lot of shit in his life, but this kid should seriously seek some professional psychological help. That picture was in one word _gross_!  
Nonetheless, this little turd was just what was missing in his team and he would catch him somehow.

"Morticia, go and knock him unconscious."

The girl was his ace card. If she couldn't do it then he'd have no faith that his team of Mortys are even worth keeping, small as it was as of yet.  
With determination, Morticia stepped forward, ready to punch the living daylights out of the fanboy.  
Just as she was about to attack him – delivering a hard kick straight into his stomach – the Super Morty Fan started to fanboy again.

"Oh wow! You're a girl! Aww and so cute!"

Embarrassingly enough the compliment made Morticia halt in her actions and blush.  
Rick only groaned. This girl had been his last hope.  
He was never going to win against the Council of Dicks with these useless Mortys…

As the Super Fan glomp-hugged Morticia, Morty became emphatic enough at the girl's plight that he tried to come to her help, ignoring the possible "danger" of getting to close into the fanboy's range.  
Helplessly he tried to pull the other boy off of his victim and soon you could only see a tangle of yellow and limbs.  
Seeing the mess, Shadow Morty found heart again to also join in and managed to wrestle his two comrades free. As Super Fan Morty – apparently a very forgetful boy – tried to hug the specter again and plummeted to the ground, Rick stepped in and injected the chip to the boy's temple.  
All four stood with baited breath and watched the LED blinking.

"Peep! Peep! Peep!" the annoyingly high and loud sound that accompanied the blinking was echoing through the cave.

"Peeep!" With the loudest beep-noise, the light turned green and the C-137 team released the breath that they had been holding.

On second thought, the Mortys started to wonder if they even wanted to have this guy in their group.  
Well, nothing to be done about that now. Rick had already made up his mind and would keep this one as long as he proved that he could win some battles.

The entire team watched as the chip reprogrammed the Morty's memories and as the glazed-look vanished from his face and his eyes were focused again, the three Mortys started to hold their breath again.

"Hey, Rick. Wow, what's going on? Who are these Mortys?" he grinned happily as his sight landed on his teammates.

"Those are your new playmates. Try to get along with them and don't harass them too much, okay?" Rick explained and took a big sip from his flask.

The trio was grateful that Rick was trying to do some damage control. They knew that they needed that kind of support from their grandfather and leader.

"Okay, Rick." Super Fan Morty chirped happily.

* * *

Morty K-4872 had done his research and he had done it really thoroughly.  
He could testify that Dirty Rick had so many felonies on his back that he would be stuck in jail for a really long time if he would hand him over to the authorities.  
However, none of the things that he had found out linked him in any way to the illegal Morty brothel ring.  
Then again, dealings like that were so well guarded and kept secret that they were probably not easy to unearth with just a little search about background history.

No, in this case Morty would have to get his hands dirty and make this up close and personal. Actually, he hated interrogations, though usually his Rick was the one who led those while Morty had to inflict the torture and pain at his mentor's command. This was easily the top reason why he hated interrogations in the first place.  
But this time, it would be different because this time his grandfather wouldn't lead – he wouldn't even help him out with it. And this was bound to make all the difference.

Yet, the Morty was still unsure if he could really go through with it.  
He had to! This wasn't for himself, but for the sake of all the other Mortys who were in pain and tortured and the ones that were in the very danger of ending up like that.  
Who knew how many Mortys counted on him rescuing them from their cruel fate and how many more needed to be protected so that they wouldn't have to suffer, too?  
Morty-abuse was sadly enough such a common thing in the Rick community – not just on the Citadel, but in general – that it was beyond believable that there were still some who felt the need to stack such heinous crimes on top of it and make the lives of every Morty Smith in the multiverse even harder and more unbearable than it already was!

With those thoughts as motivation in his mind, K-4872 stomped inside the Morty Games Coliseum.  
His Rick was slowly following him, clearly with far less enthusiasm as the boy.  
Why should he get worked up over this though? This was his boy's mission and not his own after all.

Morty didn't have to search for long, quickly finding a counter at which his target stood positioned at. It was really just the counter on the right side, just after entering the entrance hall.  
He was so easy to recognize with his cocky smirk, sharp angled face, dark bags under his eyes, the long slicked down hair that he tied together in a loose ponytail and the cheap suite that he wore.

The tasteless bling in the form of golden rings on his hands of which one held onto a toothpick and in the shape of a bunch of ear studs as well as an unoriginal necklace that had a golden lock dangling from it, didn't make him one bit more likable.  
His entire appearance screamed shady whether it were those tattoos that he so openly presented on his neck and the back of his hand or that band aid on his cheek that was covering up a fresh wound that might probably leave a lasting scar… or that facial hair of his.  
In short he looked like a dirty rat!  
This was without a mistake the Rick that he was looking for. Rick D-9 – Dirty Rick.

With an air full of confidence, he walked over to the counter.  
It was finally time to get his hands dirty…

The Rick looked down at him in slight confusion, only used to dealing with Ricks and not with Mortys themselves.

"Whazzup? Ya lost dat Rick of yaz?" he asked slightly irritated in an odd accent.

"I'm not looking for my Rick. I'm looking for some answers!" Morty K-4872 practically spat as he tried to look the other down with narrowed eyes.

* * *

Morty C-137 still couldn't stop thinking about their last battle.  
It was a fight against a trainer, but this one hadn't been alien, at least not to him – it had been his dad.  
He had an Ad Space Morty, a Jerry Morty and a Jerry Fan Morty on his side and he happened to overhear from the trio that he didn't even catch them, but the Mortys had decided to stay with him out of sympathy.

After his loss, his father had only begged Rick pathetically to not tell Beth about the Pocket Mortys fad because he worried that things would get really ugly and violent if he did.  
Well, Morty's mom was extremely competitive at times so he could imagine it pretty well.  
He still kind of wondered how his dad got involved into this – or from which dimension he was for that matter.  
Then again, it probably made as much sense as the Burger King rip-off of at the Citadel – Jerry King – which had been build and was run by a bunch of Jerrys (and Mortys).  
Rick had made it a point to avoid that fast food joint though. Even if he did want to try them all out, no one said that he couldn't leave out a few.

Thankfully, the dimension that they were in right now looked normal again.  
Actually, it was even more normal than "normal". Not only were they outside again, but the dirt looked brown and the grass looked green.  
The sky was blue and the trees looked just the same like they did in Morty's home dimension.  
If he didn't know any better he'd say they were actually on earth again.  
Only the fact that they rarely met any humans and only alien Morty trainers, reminded Morty C-137 again that this wasn't home.

"Heads up, dipshits. Here comes the final boss." Rick declared as they walked straight towards a big boss battle arena.

The brunet gulped and his comrade's faces became steely and hard as they climbed the stairs.  
No matter how often they faced off against a Rick leader, it never became easier.  
Quite the opposite actually.  
However, Morty was hit by surprise as he saw whom they were up against.

The opposing Rick wore a pink blazer, blue shirt, light-blue pants, green socks, white shoes and pink-tinted mirroring sunglasses.  
His ashen skin also looked a little more like a tan.  
Somehow, he looked like he came straight from the beach.

However, not only the Rick looked very unusual.  
Morty was quite impressed by the four interdimensional counterparts that stood behind the gym leader.  
They were Sexy Devil Morty, Super Unicorn Morty, Turbulent Juice Morty and Mortaion Morty.

Especially the last one drew Morty's attention to herself – for several reasons.

"W-w-wow." He stuttered and blushed. "Why does the other Rick have so se—uh—handsome Mortys?"

"Yeah, I've heard of this guy. He's called Miami Rick and owns a nightclub in his earth's dimension's Miami." Rick replied as if that would explain everything.

Morty only looked strangely at his grandfather now.  
Any further questions that he might have had were lost as the battle was finally about to start.

"Let's just get over this quickly. I've got places to be, Rick." Miami Rick said and selected his first Morty – Sexy Devil Morty.

"Heh, that's my line, Rick." Rick C-137 commented and sent his original grandson on the field who sighed.

He didn't really feel like fighting anymore against other versions of himself.  
Honestly, what exactly was even the point of those battles? Wasn't it all just for Ricks' selfish entertainment again?

As his Rick sent him a stern glare, he at least tried to put up a determined front again. No matter how he looked at it, they would have to win and just get through some more battles if they ever wanted to attempt catching that Mysterious Rick and finally go back home again.  
So, he tried to direct the anger that he felt for Ricks on his opponent even if the other Morty didn't deserve it.

Actually, the Sexy Devil Morty looked pretty harmless.  
He looked like he was only a boy who for some odd reason was still wearing last year's Halloween costume. Additionally he looked as uncomfortable about having to fight as he felt at the moment.  
Admittedly, Morty C-137 felt really bad for having to beat him up.

"Well, c'mon Morty. Use swing." His Rick commanded impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah, Rick." The brunet mumbled back unenthusiastically and went to attack his enemy.

Since the other brunet just stood there still with the expression of discomfort on his face, Morty closed his eyes as he took a swing.  
He blinked them open in surprise again the next moment as he noticed that he only hit air.  
The devilish Morty had dodged his attack and his face has warped into one of boredom now.

"Uugh… Morty! What the heck was that?!" Rick C-137 immediately scolded his dumb grandson for missing his opponent.

It was now the other Rick's turn to order his Morty to attack. "Quick, Sexy Devil Morty! Use your surprise attack! 666!"

The boredom shifted to malice as the boy suddenly pulled a pitchfork from behind his back.  
Morty C-137's eyes widened at the sight. Where had the other even hid that thing?

Since he was still in shock, C-137 was reacting too slowly as the other Morty attacked him.  
He screamed like a banshee as the prongs of the fork pierced the skin of his arm.

After the hit, he felt even worse though.  
He groaned sluggishly and staggered, barely able to hold himself up anymore.

"What's wrong, Morty? It was just a little prick. Can't have hurt _that_ much." Rick's irritated voice penetrated the fog inside the boy's mind.

"I-I-I think… I've been poisoned…" he moaned painfully.

"WHAT?!"

Miami Rick cackled now along with his Morty.

"Indeed. That special attack of my Morty is poisonous." He boasted.

Now it was Rick C-137's turn to groan. In annoyance.  
He rummaged inside his coat and dug a green capsule-shaped object out of it.

"You're real lucky that we just picked this up from another trainer a few battles ago, right Morty?" he said as he went over to his grandson and used the serum that was labeled poison-be-gone.

The item immediately cured the horrible effect and Morty instantly felt better.

"Thanks, Rick." He said in an honest tone and with a sincere smile.

"Psht! Just do better now and don't get poisoned again, you little shit. I don't have unlimited supplies of that stuff, you know?" the older man replied contemptuously.

Morty nodded and luckily noticed from the corner of his eyes that the boy in the red spandex suit tried to attack him with the trident-like weapon again.  
This time his reaction was much faster and he not only evaded the attack but also countered and managed to disarm his opponent.

The glowing-red hayfork fell with a loud clank on the ground just outside of the ring.  
Sexy Devil Morty looked with a highly displeased face after it.  
Next thing the boy found himself also on the ground since Morty C-137 had slammed into him.

Said boy was sitting on his opponent now and began to lay into him.  
After that mean and devious attack, C-137 saw no point in holding back anymore.  
The other had been only playing the role of an innocent boy and tried to trick him so he would let his guard down and worst of all, it had actually worked.

Morty C-137 didn't stop his attacks until he was sure that the other was no longer able to fight.

"Yeah, Morty! That's what I'm talking about!" Rick C-137 cheered, actually a little proud of his grandson.

Miami Rick didn't look as fazed as his first defeated Morty crawled back to his side again. He only nodded with his head towards his Mortaion Morty who now stepped onto the battlefield.

Morty C-137 gulped a little and blushed as his new opponent winked at him.

"C'mon, Morty! Get a grip!" His grandfather sounded annoyed again as he saw how Morty was acting.

"Y-you're right, Rick!" he said and tried to focus again. "I really shouldn't feel this weird about an alien girl version of myself."

Miami Rick interrupted this time. "Actually, that one's not really a Morty. She's part of an exotic type of space sirens who just happen to look like a sexy female Morty. So it's not like this would be considered narcissism or selfcest or something like that…"

"WHA-WHAT?!" the revelation was so shocking to Morty that he again failed to dodge his enemy's attack.

"Goddammit, Morty! Don't be an idiot! She's obviously a trap!" Rick C-137 shouted.

Unfortunately, this information confused the brunet only more. "What? What's that supposed to mean, Rick?"

His inattentiveness towards his opponent rewarded him with another hard punch and more damage towards his health.  
The Mortaion Morty didn't stop in her attacks and kept going with a mix of flirting and precise, strong hits.  
So, it didn't take very long till Morty C-137 was on the ground.

"Damn, Morty! I can't really watch this anymore." His Rick groaned again. "Tag out. Morticia, you go in. Take care of that bitch!"

The girl stepped forward, looking more determined than ever.  
Obviously, that flirtatious attitude of the other _female_ Morty was something that Morticia took personally.

'There's no way that that cheap whore is going to beat me!' she thought with envy clearly flashing in her eyes.

The space siren noticed it easily and giggled sweetly in amusement.  
This in turn made the brunette narrow her eyes even more.  
The tension between the two girls became quickly thick enough that you could cut it with a knife.

"Oouuuh, a real cat fight!" Super Fan Morty suddenly started to blurt out. "The only thing that would make it better would be if there was mud in the arena."

"Hah! I agree with that." Miami Rick commented from his side of the field.

Rick C-137 looked at both his opponent and his own Morty weirdly. "…I would agree, too…if those two were hot chicks instead of Mortys."

The girls didn't take any notice about the conversation that was going on about them. They were still too busy staring each other down.  
Quick as a flash, Morticia was the first one to strike.  
The Mortaion Morty blocked her punch with her arm as if it was nothing.

Seems like the siren wasn't just all looks.  
She proved it further by dealing a punch to the yellow-shirted girl.  
A heated fight broke out in which fists flew and kicks were dealt out in almost rapid succession.  
Somewhere in between the girls even started to use cheap methods like scratching and hair pulling. It was quite a mess to watch.

Despite the even hits, it soon began to look like Morticia was the one on the losing end. She was in a really bad shape, littered with scratch marks and bruises and panting rather heavily while her opponent still looked mostly fine if you ignored her disheveled hair.

Still, the brunette swore to herself that she wouldn't back down and win this match. So, she concentrated all of her remaining strength in her one last move.  
Quick as a bee she lunged at the Mortaion Morty.  
The other almost burst out laughing, thinking that her opponent's aim was completely off.

However, it wasn't since Morticia hadn't tried to hit the alien girl.  
It was something that the green-skinned siren only noticed after it was already too late.  
The Mortys and even the Ricks blushed at the view.  
Mortaion Morty screeched in a high pitch as she covered herself with her arms.

Morticia had grabbed her skimpy clothes and managed to tear them off, completely exposing the other.  
Blinded by humiliation, the alien suddenly fled from the battle arena while still screaming loudly.

"So, that's what you meant with trap…" Morty C-137 mumbled, brows furrowing.

"H-Hey! Wait a second!" Miami Rick called after his escaping Morty, but it was no use.

Since he was still in the middle of a battle, he also couldn't just chase after her.

He sighed and groaned sarcastically. "_Great…_"

After all the trouble, he went through to catch one of those…

"Well, no helping it." His posture was back to normal again. "Guess it's your turn now, Super Unicorn Morty."

The impressive, tall and muscular Morty with the long pink and blue mane stepped forward now.

Since Morticia had been weakened a lot in her battle, Rick C-137 decided to switch her out. "Come back here, Morticia. Shadow Morty, you go out there and win us that badge!"

He was actually convinced that the specter might be enough to finish this entire arena fight.  
After all the ghost-like Morty was almost undefeated.

The pretty Morty on the enemy side still looked as relaxed as ever.  
Rick C-137 thought that the unicorn might even be high. Not that it mattered. If anything, this would make the fight probably even easier for them.

"Shadow Morty, use one of your dark and creepy attacks. Wha-what-whatever they're called." He ordered.

Obediently, the shade went forward with the intent to deal some deadly damage to his opponent.  
Super Unicorn Morty didn't even attempt to evade the oncoming attack. Maybe the drugs in his system made him oblivious to the danger that he was currently facing.

At least that was what Rick C-137 had thought until Shadow Morty lashed out and… nothing.  
The unicorn wasn't bothered because he seemed to know that it would deal no damage to him.  
That was odd. How was that even possible?

Miami Rick cackled in delight, clearly having expected this. "Ha ha ha! Didn't you know that light beats darkness? Time to use your rainbow powers, Super Unicorn Morty!"

In an instant, the powerful Morty began to attack.  
The pink horn on his forehead started to spin like a drill and shot rainbow-colored laser beams at the specter.  
Shadow Morty shrieked in pain and immediately went to hide behind his Rick's back.

"Oh, c'mon. You can't be serious!" he looked in disbelieve at the odd and magical creature and then to the frightened shadowy phantom behind his back.

It was obvious that trying to send out Shadow Morty again would only end in failure and since Morty and Morticia were already out for the count it left him with only one choice.

"Guess there's no helping it. We're tagging out. It's your turn now, Super Morty Fan Morty." He said with little enthusiasm.

"Really, Rick? I can? Can I?" the fanboy asked excitedly and jumped up and down.

Apparently, he was very delighted to be facing the pretty Morty.  
Rick C-137 was unsure if that was a good sign or not, but he had hope that this Morty would win him at least this battle.

What to do with the remaining Morty that still stood waiting beside his Rick was something that he would think about when the time for it came.  
Even if he were short on Mortys, maybe a miracle would occur today no matter how little the scientist believed in such things like fate and wondrous happenings.

As it was, he could only watch the delirious version of his grandson enter the battleground now.

The Super Fan immediately hugged the other Morty around the middle who was again completely unimpressed. Still, the fanboy only continued to hug.

Miami Rick laughed again. "What? Is that all that your Morty can do?"

Rick C-137 felt embarrassed beyond believe because apparently that was the only thing that his Morty would do.

"Super Fan, attack him properly, will you!" he yelled clearly frustrated.

"Nooo. I don't wanna." The crazy Morty argued back. "He's just too pretty. And just look at all those gold handprints on his body. Can I touch them, too?"

Rick only slapped a hand on his face while the gym leader guffawed loudly.

Super Unicorn Morty still looked as calm as ever and awaited further orders from his trainer who was too busy trying to catch his breath again. Miami Rick actually had to hold his pained side and wiped tears from his underneath his shades.  
For as strong as a Morty like the super unicorn was, he sadly was too dumb to actually act on his own so he still continued to wait and just ignored the fanboy that was still clinging to him.

"Oh, hey! Hey! Can I take a selfie with you?" Super Fan asked his opponent and dug around in his pocket for his mobile.

Rick C-137 was at a loss for words and Miami Rick almost died of laughter since the battle became only more hilarious.  
He was suddenly interrupted though as his mobile phone began to ring.  
Quickly calming down again, he ignored the ongoing battle that he had and answered.

"Hello, Rick speaking?"

_"Where the heck are you, Daddy?"_ a voice which sounded like that of a Morty immediately started to bitch on the other end.

"Sorry, Princess, but I'm currently very busy." He replied.

Being distracted by the call, he almost didn't notice what went down on the battleground.

Super Morty Fan Morty finally found his own mobile and proceed to take a selfie with his opponent. Upon taking the photo, the sudden flash blinded the unicorn and made him momentarily dizzy.

Rick C-137 perked up at that and saw the perfect chance to land a hit on the enemy.

Being quick on his feet about it, he shouted. "Quick, Morty Fan! Glomp hug him!"

Now that was an order that the fanboy could follow and he tackled his enemy who fell to the ground.

"Shit! Morty!" Miami Rick yelled, noticing that the other side managed to land a hit on them.

Immediately a voice on the other end of his mobile started to yell.

Rick talked back into his phone. "What? No, not you!"

Seeing that his opponent was still distracted, C-137 continued to attack.  
If the other didn't fight back it wasn't his problem.

"Morty Fan, choke hug him!" He commanded with a big grin on his face since the tables had turned now.

His Morty followed through with it swiftly.  
Surprisingly his hug was really strong enough to make Super Unicorn Morty fight for air.

"Goddammit!" Miami Rick cursed. "Princess, I'm kinda busy right now… what? No. I'm not in the middle of another drug deal right now!"

C-137 just didn't leave his opponent a chance for a comeback.

"Just squeeze the air out of him." He said, not even bothering trying to come up with a different attack pattern.

While Miami Rick was still in a discussion with his original Morty on the other end who insisted that he came back home to him right now, he could only helplessly watch as his strongest Morty lost consciousness and was therefore unable to continue the fight.  
The man could only groan and nodded towards his last standing Morty.

Seeing, as Turbulent Juice Morty didn't seem to get the gesture, he said, "Drag Unicorn out of the ring and get in there."

The blond followed suite and picked his unconscious comrade up to place him next to the dizzy Sexy Devil Morty before taking the Unicorn's place.

"Now use your muscles to squash him, Morty! No! Again, I don't mean you, Princess!"

Rick C-137 actually feared that they might lose the last battle as the tanned and muscular Morty approached the fanboy and tried to squish him in his arms.  
Surprisingly the Morty Fan took it rather well though.

"Oh, you wanna hug, too?" he said slightly breathless and wiggled around enough so that he could hug his opponent back.

C-137 wasn't sure if he should be amazed or just plain weirded out by his latest catch. The Morty really had a displaced view of reality as long as it involved other Mortys, didn't he?  
Nonetheless, since Miami Rick was still on his phone and trying to pacify Miami Morty, he had to try to use this chance to turn this battle into his favor again.

However, it seemed that his lucky star had burned out because no matter how good Super Fan Morty had held up against his opponent in the end he was still crimped with such a force that he eventually lost consciousness.

"Ugh, it would have been too good to be true…" Rick groaned as the now dizzy Morty was carelessly dropped on the ground.

He looked over at his team again.  
His original Morty was clearly out of it and in no condition to fight.  
Morticia might have been able to go for a bit longer, but she was also too badly wounded so using her would be pretty pointless.  
That only left Shadow Morty who had been wounded by Super Unicorn Morty's attack and still looked quite frightened, but was the only one in the condition to battle.

"Well, Shadow Morty. Looks like it's your turn to try again." He said and motioned with his head towards the still standing enemy.

The specter still looked out of it and only reluctantly floated back into the ring again.  
Morticia meanwhile had been kind enough to pick up the Morty Fan and drag him next to Morty C-137.

The ghostly Morty floated unsure back and forth in front of the enemy.

"What the heck are you waiting for?! Just attack the other Morty!" C-137 yelled.

Shadow Morty ignored the order and looked like he was too scared to approach his opponent.

Miami Rick then found the time between his call to order Turbulant Juice Morty to attack. "Just crush this one like the other Morty!"

Then he was back to discussing with his dialogue partner on the phone who started to quip again over one thing or another.

The tall blond Morty followed the command and approached the tiny floating shade.  
Shadow Morty screeched in fright as his enemy tried to grab him but passed through.  
Both looked at each other dumbly.  
The phantom-like Morty blinked before he seemed to overcome his fear and rose up above till he was hovering over his opponent.

With his confidence back intact, the specter expanded like a stormy raincloud and encased his enemy.  
Both Ricks were gaping as they watched the whole scene unfold in front of their eyes.

Thunder was emanating from the shadowy cloud as dark spiked tendrils rained down on the confused Turbulent Juice Morty.  
After everything was over, Shadow Morty returned to his previous form and returned to his Rick's side, content now after he had gotten his revenge on the enemy side for scaring him as they had.

"What the heck…?" Miami Rick could only muttered and almost dropped his phone as he looked at his defeated Morty.

Again, the voice of his original Morty piped up on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on the way." He answered and finally hung up.

As C-137 marched towards him, he threw the badge over to him and grabbed his portal gun.  
He first opened a portal for team C-137 and then one for himself since he had to get back to his _princess_ immediately.

"Trouble in paradise, huh?" C-137 mocked.

"Mind your own fucking business." Miami Rick replied with a frown and then was gone.

His beaten Mortys were left behind forgotten.

"Um, should we bring them to the Healing Center?" Morty C-137 asked as he looked down on the defeated opponents while clutching at his own wounds.

"Nah. We'd probably only get in trouble if we do, since those aren't my Mortys." Rick replied and took a swig from his flask again. He had been too preoccupied in the battle to think about his alcohol and really needed a drink now.

"You don't want our asses getting hauled into prison because we've been accused of stealing another Rick's Mortys, do you?" he asked as he saw that his grandson was still staring pitifully at the other injured Mortys.

Morty sighed, but agreed with his Rick and followed him through the portal that would bring them back to the Citadel.  
Of course, that didn't mean that he was okay with what they were doing.  
The system that all of those Ricks had built was truly fucked up.

* * *

Morty K-4872 huffed as he walked away from Dirty Rick's counter in the entrance hall of Morty Games.  
His Rick had been waiting close by the entrance with crossed arms and folding one leg over the other as he casually leaned against the wall.

As he saw his Morty approaching, he arched his eyebrow and asked, "You done here?"

"I can't get anything out of him…" the boy replied, his eyes downcast.

He had tried to pry for information, but that Rick was a sly one who didn't even slip up a little. Morty K-4872 had tried every little trick in the book, used everything that he had learned in the time that he had spent with his mentor and gone through every intimidation tactic that was available to him and yet, he got nothing out of him.

Obviously, the innocent front that the Rick had put up was completely fake – his nickname was _Dirty_ Rick for a reason and his appearance practically spelled out that he was shady.  
However, there was no way for Morty to get the information that he wanted. Not even bribing seemed to work.

"So you _are_ done here?" Rick K-4872 asked for confirmation again.

"I'm at my ropes end here, Rick! I'm sure the guy does know something, but I just can't make him spill the beans!" the boy almost shouted in his frustration.

He didn't want to leave yet. Not until he had done his investigation of this Rick properly.  
However, he also couldn't whip out a gun at this place and demand answers from him.  
He'd be kicked out by the security and probably even arrested because owning an unauthorized gun at the Citadel was illegal and the only Ricks and Mortys who were allowed to carry weapons were the police force and the military.  
So, he saw no chance to proceed here. There was nothing left for him to try.  
He really hit a dead-end this time…

"Okay, I get it. You're donesies." Rick said and stood up straight.

Morty wanted to protest that they couldn't just leave like this, but to his surprise his grandfather and mentor didn't move to leave, but started to walk in the direction of the counter where he had just come from.

Without looking back at his grandson, he said, "I know, I said that I'll let you handle the entire investigation and I wouldn't intervene with it, but it looks like a Morty can't get any further than this…"

'…so we have to use other methods now. _Rick methods_.' He continued to think as he approached Rick D-9.

Morty could only look with wide eyes as his mentor talked with the suspect and they seemed to go along pretty well if Dirty Rick's laughs were any indication.  
His grandfather then came back and without another word left. Morty followed quickly behind him as he noticed it.

"W-what did he say? Could you find something out?" he stuttered while trying to keep up with the other's long strides.

Still not answering, Rick leaned against the wall at the far corner of the Morty Games building and lit a cig.  
This attitude confused Morty and he decided to give his grandfather a little more time to answer.  
However as he noticed that he wouldn't get one and Rick only calmly continued to smoke, he got irritated.  
Just as he wanted to shout something at his mentor, Rick stood straight once again, looked back to the entrance and threw his half-smoked cigarette to the floor before vanishing around the corner.  
Following the other's gaze, he could see that Dirty Rick was approaching them, but he completely ignored Morty and also vanished around the same corner.

The boy's eyebrows drew together and he also followed the men, not wanting to be left out of the action.  
The action was already going on though as he came around the corner and saw how his Rick had pushed the other against the wall and held him up by the scruff of his shirt.

"I hope you can give us the information we want now?" Rick K-4872 asked, his face so close to the other that their noses were almost touching as he glowered.

"W-wat? I-I dunno a'thin, buddy. R-really." Rick D-9 said, lifting up his hands in a defensive motion and putting on a fake smile again.

"Fine. If you don't wanna talk, I guess I'll just have to make you!"

With those words, he was starting to beat the living daylights out of the other Rick.  
Morty was shocked at what unfolded before his very eyes. He had never seen his grandfather look as menacing as that and this and his violent behavior actually scared him.  
Usually his grandfather was so calm and calculating – the perfect example of being in complete control of himself – so it was really unnerving to see him act like this.  
In the darkness and solitude of the little alley, no one would come to Dirty Rick's rescue and all three people present knew it.

That's why Dirty Rick eventually gurgled out a little response that sounded like "S-stop… I'll tell ya…"

"Oh, so you do know something now?" Rick K-4872 spat and stopped beating up his victim, but still held onto the scruff of his now bloody shirt.

"I a'mit it. I've work'd fur Rick A-66, but I swear I only sold thems drugz once and I dunno where'z he at now!"

"What?! That's not what I wanted to know! I want to know about the Mortys!"

Dirty Rick looked slightly disoriented for a moment, but as the other raised his fist again, he started to speak up.

"Okay—okay! I'll tell ya. We get te Mortyz from Day Care. It'z te onez that're assigned to Boot Camp trainin 'cause dat way we can beat t'o birdz wiz one stone." He hastily answered.

Rick K-4872 looked irritated "What do you mean with that?"

"I mean dat they're get theirz trainin and we have Mortyz dat we can lend out fur te battlez. But dun tell no one dat you had thiz from me."

Dirty Rick knew that his boss would have his head if he knew that he just leaked out confidential information. This wasn't exactly something that anyone should really find out about…

Dirty Rick was drawn out of his thoughts by a kick in the crotch. "That's not what I wanted to know! I wanted to know about the Morty sex trafficking. I don't care how far you're involved in that shit, I just want names or addresses. Just spill it already!"

Rick K-4872 wondered if he was trying to take him for some kind of schmuck.  
Why would he want to know where Morty Games got the Mortys that they were lending out for the tournaments? Unless those were further sold off to any brothels that information was completely irrelevant to him.

"I dunno a'thin 'bout dat." Dirty Rick answered.

Apparently that was the wrong answer because Rick K-4872 started to beat him up again, hitting with such a force that he nearly broke bones despite their special metallic coating, which made them sturdier. Ricks got those enhancements for a reason…

Morty winced as he watched, but didn't dare to intervene. After all, he was the one, who wanted that information and if this was the only way to make that Rick talk then he wouldn't stop his grandfather.  
After the sound of some cracking – definitely the enhanced bones – Dirty Rick gurgled out another response again.

"You remember something now?!" Rick K-4872 yelled as he stopped hitting his victim again.

"List'n! I really dunno a'thin 'bout thez Morty kidnappinz!" Rick D-9 whimpered.

Just as the other lifted his fist again, he quickly added, "B-but I can tell ya sum interestin information that mighta help ya find te culprit."

"And what information would that be?" the glasses wearing Rick asked, not looking convinced.

"It'z about te owner of Morty Inc. Pretty sure he'z got sumthin to do wiz it. Ya'll think so, too, after I'll tell ya wat kinda guy he iz…"

* * *

Bonus:

In dimension C-899, a certain Jellybean was hiding behind some bushes.  
He wore a yellow baseball cap and other Morty merchandise.  
How he came here or why he was even still alive was something that no one could answer…

"Hehehe. I've heard that a naked Morty was running around in this dimension." He whisper-talked and rubbed his hands together in glee.

As soon as he had heard of that he had come to this dimensions and been lurking in the hopes of catching that Morty.  
He perked up as he heard sounds of running and got ready to jump out of the bushes to surprise the Morty.

Just as something moving came into sight, he leaped up and tried to catch it.

The Mortaion Morty screeched as someone jumped in her way and she bashed and kicked her (attempted) assaulter.  
After her opponent was on the ground, she stomped over him and continued to run while still trying to cover up her exposed body.

Mr. Jellybean laid in a heap on the ground. His sticky green blood was pooling around him and his body was dotted in blotches of black and blue from all the bruises he received.  
The candy-like creature looked thoroughly crushed and bashed in and didn't move anymore…

* * *

AN: Lame bonus, I know. But take it as a little homage to the now removed Mr. Jellybean in the game.


	5. Chapter 5: Looks like we'll have to

AN: Things are going to pick up in this chapter and some puzzle pieces will finally fall in place and confirm what a lot of you readers most likely have already guessed.

Warnings: more Morty battles (so it gets violent again), smut in the form of an orgy (five Mortys on one Rick) – _yes, you read that right. I'm not kidding you. That's really in this chapter._ Might feel a bit non-con, but is more dub-con though.

* * *

**The Lines Between Ricks And Mortys – Chapter 5: Looks like we'll have to change tactics for this one / I'm not the real bad guy here**

As they walked through the portal, they were greeted by darkness. Not pitch-blackness like in a cave without a source of light.  
It was more the kind of darkness that you have in the middle of a night that was only illuminated by the moon and the stars in the sky.  
Just that in this dimension, the stars were on the ground.

At least that's what it looked like to Morty as he saw the shimmering lights on the dark-blue soil and grass that emitted a soft glow.  
It was a breathtaking sight.

Sadly, Morty didn't had time to admire it as his Rick was completely unfazed by the wonders of this new dimension and pressed onwards.  
His eyes were fixated on his Mortytector like so often and he was probably analyzing whatever data the device showed him to determine which the strongest Morty that freely roamed this dimension was and how to get to him the fastest.

They continued on for a while until they witnessed an alien trainer fighting against a wild Morty. Presumably the one that Rick had wanted to catch.

"Looks like we're too late, Rick. This guy is probably going to catch that Morty now." He told his grandfather.

"We'll see." Rick seethed between his teeth, not wanting to believe that he let that one get away.

Team C-137 watched the brown blob-like alien send in one Morty after the other and with each defeated boy, Morty C-137's eyes grew wider and his face paler.

"What?! That can't be!" The alien screeched after his last Morty was also defeated.

"Hell yes!" Rick cheered. "See, Morty. He's still free for us to catch. And just look at how crazy strong he is. There's no way I'm gonna lose against anyone if I have this guy in my team!"

His grandson gulped audibly. Trying to catch this Morty involved fighting against him first and after seeing just how strong his other-dimensional counterpart was first hand, it left him with zero confidence.

"C'mon, Mortys! After him!" Rick yelled as he dashed behind the brunet before he could get too far away.

Not that he wouldn't be able to find him again with his Mortytector, but why stall when he was right there?  
Morty whined a little, but obediently followed with the rest of the group behind the excited scientist.

* * *

"Well, this just doesn't work out." Rick C-137 mused loudly and crossed his arms over his chest.

His entourage of Mortys was behind him and panting as if they just finished a marathon. In a way they did, seeing as they had tried to catch that wild Morty for the last two hours without much success.  
He just managed to escape every time and didn't let himself get cornered. It was getting quite frustrating to say the least.

"Okay, looks like we'll have to change tactics for this one." Rick continued. "But I already have an idea. He's just a Morty, so it really shouldn't be so hard to catch him."

"What's that supposed to mean?" His original Morty immediately complained.

"What? I'm just stating a fact. He is a Morty. And there's no way that a Morty could ever outsm—outrun me." Rick caught himself on that one.

He had almost accidentally said 'outsmart', but that wasn't even something that a Rick should ever be thinking about.  
There was absolutely no way that a Morty could ever outsmart a Rick especially not the rickest Rick. That thieving Morty fanboy from Mysterious Rick, who had stolen his portal gun, was not counting. That had nothing to do with getting outsmarted!

"We're just going to make a few traps. There's no way that that won't work." The scientist stated confidently.

So, they – _they_ being just the Mortys of course – went to build a few simple traps like you would see them in comic books. Leg-hold traps, snares, dug out pits and even the classic rod underneath a box traps were laid out and equipped with bait.

Morty eyed the constructions warily and doubted the effectiveness of it all.

"Are you really serious about this, Rick? I mean, aren't these traps a bit too obvious?" He asked. "And what's with the bait anyways? There's no way that anyone is going to fall for that."

The traps were indeed not hidden very well and the bait were snacks, soda cans and some comic books and porn mags. Obviously none of these things would just lay around somewhere in the wild, so there was no way that anyone would be really dumb enough to fall for that.

"Just you wait, Morty. Just you wait." Rick said only as he seated himself behind a bush to wait for the Morty to show up and run straight into one of the sloppy traps.

His grandson just sighed and shook his head as he seated himself next to him as the rest of the Mortys also went into hiding, each right next to one of the traps that they had built.

* * *

Rick was right – as always. Morty was so ashamed of himself as every single trap was activated and in each one was a captured Morty.  
It was really embarrassing to think that he could be caught this easily. In such barely hidden traps and with such obvious bait. But it had worked and yet…

"Dammit!" Rick cursed.

While it was true that there was a Morty in every single one of the traps, none of them were the wild Morty that he had been aiming for.  
It seemed as if this one wasn't just super strong and crazy fast, but also a little clever.

"Looks like we have to change plans again." Rick concluded. "C'mon, Mortys."

Morty C-137 jerked away from peeking inside one of the bait porn mags. "Wait, Rick! Aren't you going to release the caught Mortys again?"

His complaint was ignored and he was forced to quickly follow the retreating scientist lest he was left behind.

* * *

"If nothing else works, we have just have to use brute force." Rick explained.

Well, the term "explained" was used very loosely here. Rick's plan was simply to wait for the wild Morty to walk underneath the trees that they were currently sitted on and then just all jump on him at once.  
No more chasing, no more bating and if everything went as it was planned then even no battling involved.

Needless to say that Morty still didn't like this idea even though he should be glad that they could avoid fighting against that crazy strong Morty. Super Morty Fan had obviously loved the idea and Shadow Morty was just rather confused about it than anything else, but they were all in on this. Morty C-137 sighed quietly as his grandfather occasionally checked his Mortytector to ensure that their pray was on its way to them.  
Luckily, he was just about to pass by.

"Get ready, Mortys." Rick whispered loudly and his team readied itself to pounce on their unsuspecting victim any moment now.

Not too long after, the Morty in question really wandered completely unaware of what would await him on this path.

"NOW!" Rick gave the command and team C-137 jumped simultaneously down.

Everyone, minus Rick, pounced on the unsuspecting Morty and nearly squished him under their combined weight. Muffled yells came from the captured boy, but he was unable to get up again or free himself.  
Rick jumped down last and landed squarely on his grandson's back, ignored the pained yowl that it caused.

He fumbled to reach between the mass of pubescent teenage boys (including one girl and one specter) until the wild Morty's head was in range, then pressed the injector to his temple and waited.  
Only after the positive beeping sound rang through the air, did the Mortys scrambled to get down from their newest addition.

The caught Morty's eyes were dazed for a while as was typically for when the manipulator chip overrode the memories and after his vision focused again, he looked at Rick, looking even more lost than he did when the chip was still busy.

"Mr. Allen?" The Morty in the black robes reminiscent of a judge asked as he looked very suspiciously at the scientist.

"What?" Rick was at a loss.

Who was Mr. Allen? Did he have a different name in that boy's dimension.

"You know what? Never mind." He gave up wondering about that with a sigh. "Let's just go, Morty."

"Go where? And I don't remember giving you permission to call me by my fist name, Mr. Allen."

'Or maybe the chip is broken?' Rick thought now.

At least Judge Morty's defiance struck him as a malfunction.

"H-hey?" As he was still fixed by the boy's glare, he bent down to his grandson and whispered, "You'd think I should put a second manipulator chip on him? Y'know, just in case…"

"I don't think that it's such a good idea, Rick." Morty whispered back.

Maybe catching this one wasn't such a good idea. But damn, if this Morty wasn't a badass!

* * *

After many discussions, Rick – who was still being mistaken for Rick Allen by Judge Morty…whoever that guy was – managed to lead his group of five Mortys to the next arena.  
While usually Morty would be rather impressed or frightened by the "gym leaders" that they met, he wasn't really sure what to think of this one.

"This Rick looks like a Dragon Ball reference." Morty commented more embarrassed than impressed as he eyed Shibuya Rick.

"What-what-what's that, Morty? Don't be such a little bitch about it." His Rick defended their opponent. "I-I mean, it's not like you would know if that Rick isn't actually the equivalent to Vegeta in his dimension or something."

Morty looked with big expectant eyes at him. "Is he?"

"No." was the flat reply. "He's just a bad cosplayer."

"Cut the small talk and let's get to the point, Rick!" Shibuya Rick looked clearly annoyed by the duo chitchatting as they were.

"That's actually an idea that I agree with. Let's just dive into the battle. Morty—" C-137 was about to send in his grandson when he was interrupted by his opponent.

"If you like that idea, I have an even better one for you." The platinum-blond Rick offered. "How about a battle royal instead of the lame one-on-one?"

"Isn't that against the rules?" Morty C-137 spoke up as he looked over their opponents.

Next to Shibuya Rick stood (or floated) a Psychokinetic Morty, a Mortysaurus, a Gaseous Morty, a Flaming Morty and a Frozen Morty. Even this guy's Mortys seemed to be a bunch of anime and comic references.

"Sounds exciting. I'm all for it." Rick C-137 apparently didn't give a fuck about the rules.

He honestly thought that in comparison to his opponent, he was probably way overpowered now anyways.  
While his original Morty was only really useful in battle when he snapped – or at least when he was really determined about it – his Morticia was really dedicated and quite strong ("for a girl"), the manic Super Fan Morty was also not easily beatable, his Shadow Morty was practically invincible and while he couldn't test his Judge Morty in an actual battle yet, he already knew that this one was super strong, fast and clever.  
There was no way that he could ever lose. Especially with a bunch like that.

"Rick!" Morty C-137 protested that his grandfather was so ready to ignore the rules and just make this battle more dangerous than it needed to be.

An all-versus-all? Really now? That meant that they all needed to fight at once. Aside from the fact that there would be no rest for them between the fights, it also would be pure chaos for Rick to give them a proper strategy. He couldn't really issue commands to all of his Mortys at the same time.

However, this flaw was something that Rick C-137 readily overlooked at the prospect of crushing the enemy and flaunting with his strong team of Mortys. Besides, the other Rick was right, he had started to grow bored of the old rule-based battle schematics.  
I mean what it this? Some sort of round-based Fantasy JRPG or something?

Shibuya Rick looked delighted that C-137 had so readily agreed to his idea. Of course, he didn't just come up with this simply out of boredom.  
He had a plan and it would lead him to victory – as always.

"Okay, then. Let's battle, Rick. Just don't get my clothes dirty. It takes work to look this good, Rick. I don't need you messing it up." With those words, he ran a hand through his extremely spikey hair, looking every bit the arrogant asshole that he was.

C-137 ignored it. "Get ready, Mortys."

Both teams of five entered the middle of the arena, staring fiercely at their opponents. Well, team C-137 mostly tried to look fiercely, but in all truth, they looked a little nervous. Each wondered whom they should single out and attack from their opponents, while their counterparts didn't look like they had the same troubles.  
Something was fishy here…

"Well, then Mortys. Get going. You know the drill." Shibuya Rick said and thus started the battle.

While team C-137 was still waiting for orders from their Rick who to attack, the opponents didn't wait for anything. They all targeted Super Morty Fan Morty first, who actually looked delighted instead of frightened (as he should be) when they all approached him.

The Mortysaurus bit into his arm and held him still as a stinking cloud began to surround the two of them – without a doubt the work of the Gaseous Morty.  
As if following a signal Mortysaurus let go again – much to the fanboys dismay even if the bite had hurt – and Flaming Morty suddenly set him on fire. The Super Fan screeched in panic and tried to roll around on the ground to put the fire out again, but he didn't get very far with it. The next thing he knew was that he turned into a frozen popsicle – if it was even possible for him to still be aware of that. Without question the handiwork of the Frozen Morty.  
The finishing move was delivered by the Psychokinetic Morty, who lifted the solid ice block in the air with his mental powers before letting it drop to the ground again.

The force of the impact shattered the ice and revealed an unconsciousness Super Morty Fan Morty. The first Morty of Team C-137 was already down and so quickly.

"Rick!" Morty C-137 yelled in a panic at seeing how quickly that went down without anyone of them able to prevent that.

"Calm down, Morty." Rick instructed from the sidelines while looking like he tried his hardest not to lose his nerves either. "Don't act like an idiot and just fight back!"

Team C-137 indeed tried to fight back, but it wasn't going all too well.  
Morticia screeched as she tried to punch the Flaming Morty and ended up burning her hand. Shadow Morty tried in vain to reach Psychokinetic Morty, but even his many tendrils were constantly being pushed back the psychic's mental powers.  
Judge Morty just squinted at the Gaseous Morty, clearly at a loss what do to with an opponent that had no solid form.  
And Morty nursed his hand which had received frostbite from trying to attack Frozen Morty before he squeaked and ran away as he saw the Mortysaurus approaching him with his sharp teeth.

It was complete chaos.

"It's all about mind over matter. And I think you don't really have what it takes to beat me, Rick." Shibuya Rick mocked as he unnecessarily straightened out his cheetah patterned shirt.

Rick C-137 scowled as he saw that his _oh-so overpowered_ team was indeed about to lose. He didn't understand why in the universe this could be happening.  
Just why was this going so wrong even though he was pretty sure that he should have the upper hand in this battle? His Mortys were clearly the stronger ones so how could that be?

He didn't really need to think long as he saw the enemies teaming up again to try and take out his grandson now. The problem was that Shibuya Rick's team was attacking them systematically – they all worked together as if they were one, not even needing any orders or instructions from their Rick.  
His own team on the other hand was totally uncoordinated and relied on him to give them orders on what to do. Something that was even getting hard for a genius like him to manage with so much stuff going on at once.

"Goddammit, Mortys! You need to work together on this one!" Rick yelled over the battlefield. "Quit doing your own shit and look at how the enemy is doing it! You just need to do the same thing!"

Sure, maybe it sounded cheap to just copy the enemy's strategy, but it was a working strategy and if it came down to pure strength, they could still come out as the winners even if he was already one Morty short (and not counting the injuries his Mortys had already sustained).

Morty C-137 stopped to think for a moment even if he was getting cornered by the enemy. The enemy was singling them out to take them out one after another, all working together on that.  
Of course, if you were attacked by five opponents at once, you wouldn't be able to stand a chance, no matter how strong you are. So, what they needed to do was break that teamwork apart and work together on taking the enemy out.

"I think, I got!" he declared loud enough for his team members to hear. "We need to stop relying on Rick and coordinate our attacks!"

Rick C-137 nodded approvingly on the sideline, glad that his grandson wasn't as stupid as he always said he was and that he finally understood. Though while figuring out what to do was a good start, doing it was still a different matter.  
And this was what would decide over victory or loss.

Despite the flash of genius, Frozen Morty was still advancing on C-137 with the intent to freeze him up.

"Judge Morty!" he called out in his panic as the other came way too close for comfort.

The judiciary abandoned his gaseous enemy and came to the rescue. Instead of using his bare hands as C-137 had tried before him, he struck his enemy with a wooden gavel and hit with dead precision. Frozen Morty tumbled to the side and landed on the ground.

C-137, glad that this enemy was out of the way since Judge Morty was going to take care of him now, was now faced with the Mortysaurus, who was also still advancing on him.

"Morticia! I could use your help here!" He called for his female counterpart.

The girl overlooked their rivalry for this battle and came to his side, so they could take on the dangerous Godzilla-like Morty together.  
As they fought back against him, Flaming Morty was trying to land an attack on both of them from the air. Fortunately, C-137 saw it coming in time.

"Shadow Morty! You take care of this guy!"

The specter didn't waste any time and attacked the Firestarter before he could cause any more damage. Luckily, being a phantom made out of shadows made him pretty fire resistant, so he didn't sustain any damaged when he wrapped his dark tendrils around the living flame.  
Soon the shadowy swirls were able to extinguish the fire and Flaming Morty dropped on the ground – unconscious.

The duo meanwhile had also managed to render the Mortysaurus incapacitated and Judge Morty was also done with Frozen Morty by now. The Gaseous Morty looked utterly terrified in the face of the four Mortys who were approaching him now.  
With a sound that was reminiscent of a fart, he flew over to his Rick and hid behind his back.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?! Get back in there you cowardly weakling!" Shibuya Rick's smug expression had been quickly wiped off his face as he suddenly saw one Morty fall after the other and he was legitimately angry now.

"Looks like your Fart Morty is clever and knows when to give up." C-137 mocked from his side of the arena now.

"Who's talking about giving up? We're not defeated yet."

True to his word, Shibuya Rick's Psychokinetic Morty was still standing on the battleground. Being the only one left, naturally he was getting cornered by the four Mortys from team C-137 now.  
Unfortunately, they had to learn that this Akira reject was not a pushover.

Just like Shadow Morty's previous attempts at landing an attack, the other Mortys fared no better. Not one of them came close enough to the opponent to land an attack on him.  
Psychokinetic Morty used his powers to lift them all up into the air and let them drop on the ground again, just as he had done with Super Morty Fan Morty before. Fortunately, they weren't already as badly wounded as their teammate had been, but it still hurt and pushed the air out of the Mortys' lungs.

The only one that had been mostly unaffected by the attack was Shadow Morty, who rose to the sky again.

"Shadow Morty, attack him like you did before again." C-137 wheezed as he picked himself up from the ground again.

"Why? It didn't work before." Morticia chimed in, not understanding why to repeat something, which had been already a useless attack.

"Just trust me on this one." Morty told her and then instructed the specter again. "Try to use as many tendrils as you can and concentrate the attacks on his front."

Shadow Morty followed the orders even if he himself was not able to see the point. He vicariously tried to attack the Psychokinetic on the front, but unsurprisingly he blocked every last one of them, keeping the tentacle-like shadow appendages at bay.

As she watched the one-sided battle unfold, Morticia slowly seemed to understand her companions plan and she nodded towards Morty and Judge Morty, seeing that they were all on the same page now.

Psychokinetic Morty was still fully concentrated on mentally blocking the specters attacks and despite his Rick's (late) warning call, he never knew what hit him as he was suddenly attacked by the other three Mortys from the back.  
The fight was over quickly after that since he lost his concentration to properly fight back or even defend himself.

Shibuya Rick was stumped. He turned around to look for his traitorous Gaseous Morty, but the none-physical boy had already fled the scene, so it was clearly a loss for him now.

He grit his teeth as he faced his opponent again. "My Morty's power level must be too low. I need to train more." Was his admittance to his defeat.

Without much fuss, he handed over his badge and opened a portal while team C-137 celebrated their victory with cheering and fist bumps.  
Rick smiled at his Mortys, feeling quite proud of how well they did in this fight – especially his grandson.

"That was some good teamwork and some nifty, strategic thinking." He praised. "And now pick up the unconsciousness fanboy and let's leave this shithole dimension." And the fondness was gone again as quickly as it had come…

* * *

"…so yeah, Rick D-9 is also out of the question." Morty K-4872 concluded.

The Mortys were back to telephone conferencing.

"So, we don't have any suspects anymore now, huh?" C-133 spoke up.

K-4872 replied again. "I don't think so. What about Storage Rick?"

"I've already talked to him. He was the first one that I talked to." C-137 said.

"Y-yeah, but wa-wasn't he the o-one that t-told y-you ab-about the other R-Ricks?" A-22β6 asked in his stuttering voice.

"I agree. That seems awfully suspicious of him to just draw the attention to other Ricks just so that he's off the hook." C-133 had to agree.

"W-well, he said that the Day Care is a safe place and that he had nothing to do with it, but you're right. I guess it's really suspicious that he defended himself like that and then started to point his finger at other Ricks." C-137 realized his mistake. "I'll have to check him out again."

A-22β6's voice piped up again. "M-me and my R-Rick will a-a-also cu-come with."

"I think that's a good idea. I'll come with my Rick, too, and we'll interrogate him together." C-133 chimed in.

"I would like to come also, but I have to investigate a different lead." K-4872 apologized. "It's an information that I got from Rick D-9, but I'm not sure if it has something to do with this. It does concern the owner of the Morty Day Care though."

"That's okay. I think we three will be enough for this." C-137 spoke again. "We're currently on the way to the hotel, but I think the Day Care is closed already anyways, so we should go check it out first thing tomorrow morning. When does it open up again?"

"Sh-should be a-around 8."

"Okay then we meet tomorrow 8 am in front of the Day Care."

"Good. See ya guys then."

The Mortys then all bid their good-byes and hung up.

Morty C-137 felt a little angry with himself that he just let that Storage Rick off the hook so easily. He should have been more suspicious about the fact that he went on the defense so fast and then tried to divert the attention to some of the other Ricks.  
This Rick was certainly the most suspicious one out of all of them now.

"Wow, you seem really engaged in that case." Morticia commented.

She had overheard a few of those telephoneconferencings and therefore had also gotten a whiff of this Morty trafficking schemes and that Morty and his friends were trying to find the perpetrator.  
However, she did find it a bit silly for them to get involved in this. Shouldn't they just let the CPD or the Citadel's militia handle this?

Morty C-137 already knew the girl's opinion on this whole thing and her comment made him more angry than necessary at the moment. "Well, how would you feel if you were kidnapped and brought to a strange place where a Rick would just use you sexually against your will?!"

All the Mortys just stood stunned into silence.  
It seemed that C-137 was projecting what had happened to him and therefore took this crime rather personally.  
Since none of the other Mortys knew about what had happened between him and Mysterious Rick, they had no words to offer in regards to the emotional outburst.

Rick took a sip from his flask and only eyed his original Morty, not commenting on the situation.  
However, he thought that they should just be done with this whole crap fast, so that they could finally start to work out Morty's issue with what had happened.  
The boy certainly needed it.

* * *

Storage Rick sat in the small parlor, smoking and reminiscing about all the stuff that had happened in the last weeks.  
In a way, it felt all too weird to be true, but it definitely happened and he would be reminded of it each day.

This whole thing had started after that one night – the night where that Blue Shirt Morty had come onto him.  
And from there on everything just went downhill. Things got out of hand and that way too fast.  
It was just the next night that another Morty came into his room.  
This wasn't unusual, but unlike the other times that one of the boys would come and ask for cuddles and just sleeping in bed next to him, he asked Storage Rick to have sex with him.

After that, it would happen again and again and again.  
Every night a different Morty would come into his room and wanted to get fucked by him instead of just wanting the simple affections that Rick had always given out at the time as part of his daily routine.

He couldn't really explain it and he also found no pattern for why it happened. Sometimes it were Mortys that he had just released from their cryogenic sleep that day and other times it were Mortys that had been around the Day Care for a long time already. He couldn't explain why those horny little bastards suddenly decided to relieve their sexual tension with him. Part of him wondered if that first Morty had just told some of the others about their sex and planted weird ideas in their confused little heads.  
Still, that didn't sound like a satisfying answer, but then again it wasn't really an answer that he was looking for. He needed a solution.  
Especially after that one night when things had gotten completely out of control!

_He remembered still how he had laid in bed, eyes already closed, but still awake as he practically expected his door to open any moment now.  
And he shouldn't be disappointed because open it did.  
With an almost inaudible sigh, he blinked his eyes open to check, which of his Mortys had decided to visit him this night. Honestly, he kind of hoped that it would be his favorite – that Blue Shirt Morty – who still came to him about every other night at least.  
What greeted him instead was something that he really hadn't expected at all._

_It wasn't just one single Morty that came in and approached his bed – it were five.  
He tried to make out the intruders in the darkness and could recognize that it was a Reptile Morty, a Business Morty, an Evil Rabbit Morty, a Robot Morty and a Blob Morty._

_"Hey! What's all this about?" he asked as he sat up._

_They surely couldn't be here because of the "usual" – whatever the usual actually was at this point.  
However, completely unfazed the bunch of Mortys crawled on his small bed._

_"Just relax, Rick." "Yeah, let us handle this." "We just want to make you feel good." They said, as they approached him and his queen-sized bed suddenly felt way too small._

_Before Storage Rick even had the chance to protest, he was roughly pushed back onto the mattress and the Business Morty – one of the two culprits that pushed him – crawled up his body until he straddled his face, pressing his crotch right against his mouth.  
All struggle was in vain, as his hands were held by his side by strong furry paws and he couldn't lift his head up with the weight on his face so Rick could only lay back and let things unfold._

_It didn't even take long for him to get hard as he inhaled the smell of arousal directly from Business Morty's crotch, who moaned and mewled happily as he rubbed his hardening bulge all over his mouth and nose.  
Any protests that he still tried to make, came out muffled and aroused the boy only more as it caused vibrations against his stiff dick._

_The other Mortys also weren't just idle.  
In quick movements, eight hands rid him of all his remaining clothes and started to explore his body.  
Since he couldn't see what was going on, Rick could only guess, which Morty was doing what to him._

_He could feel furry paws roaming over his chest, one clawed scaly hand rubbing one of his thighs after prying his legs apart and one cold and metallic hand grasping and stroking his other one._

_The weirdest sensation was the one on his stomach though. It felt weirdly warm and slimy.  
Oh, right. The Blob Morty.  
He gulped a little as he felt the slick sensation move towards his abdomen, slowly closing in on his tall standing and by now fully hard erection._

_His concentration was ripped away from that as an eager tongue started to lap at one of his nipples. A sharp pinching sensation made him gasp as the Evil Rabbit Morty nipped a little too hard on it, but Rick didn't really mind the pain.  
Just as the pink tongue lapped apologetically over his aching nub, claws were digging into the skin of his thighs – deep enough to leave scratches, maybe even scars._

_So caught up in the mix of sensations, he didn't notice when the Blob Morty bent down over him and took his erection inside his mouth – or well, just inside his body – until it already happened._

_Shit! The feel of that warm gooey substance was enough to drive him nuts!_

_The smell of musk grew even stronger as Business Morty finally freed his throbbing cock from his pants and underwear and shoved it directly in Rick's face.  
The old man groaned, feeling more turned on by being dominated like this than he would like to admit._

_Again, he wasn't aware until it was already too late when a metallic "finger" worked its way into his anus, slowly probing deeper.  
He hissed a little at the sensation. The metal felt smooth though the shape was weird and nothing like a human finger and the lack of lubrication still caused a slight, burning sensation inside him._

_As if reading his thoughts, Robot Morty said, "Hey, Reptile. Lube me up with your spit."_

_The thought wasn't the most pleasant when Rick pictured the violet spittle of the scaly Morty, but there was little that he could do in his current position and it was probably better than no lube at all.  
There wasn't much time for thought though as a harsh pinch on his other nipple caused by rodent incisors made him forget everything and cry out a little in surprise._

_The moment that his mouth was open, Business Morty must have been getting tired of just rubbing his dick all over Rick's face and shoved it inside his mouth.  
Rick, never one to displease a lover, sucked immediately on the intrusive fleshy pole._

_Bobbing and moaning around the delicious little cock, he was surprised again when he became aware of another sensation once more.  
His eyes widened as slicked metal started to slide into his ass and it wasn't only because it felt cold._

_'That doesn't feel like his finger…' he pointed out inside his mind as the thicker and longer object slid deeper and deeper inside him._

_What part of Robot Morty was that? Did he even have a part like that?  
It was only then that he suddenly understood what the other Mortys had always meant when they talked about Robot Morty playing with his "joystick". Where was the boy even hiding that _

thing_?  
The "stick" was now poking right into his prostrate and made him moan loudly around the meat in his mouth._

_He almost missed completely that Blob Morty who had been slurping eagerly at his cock had stopped doing that and shifted around to sit down on him.  
While the sensation wasn't that extremely different – the sticky goo of his body kind of felt the same no matter where you would stick your dick in – he did notice that it was vaguely different.  
The sucking motion and the sounds where the slightest bit different and obviously the boy wasn't making gagging sounds anymore, but used his now free mouth to moan like a bitch in heat.  
Storage Rick felt a little disappointed that he wasn't able to see the pink blob fuck himself on his dick, but oh well. Tough luck._

_That disappointment didn't really last all that long as he could feel Robot Morty thrusting into him in hard and fast movements, hitting his prostrate every time with an unbelievable precision.  
The Business Morty was also thrusting into his mouth, forcing Rick to deepthroat him, which he gladly did._

_In between the actions, he was only dimly aware that one furry paw grabbed his hand and made it wrap around something pulsing and warm.  
It only registered fully to him when Evil Rabbit Morty started to hump into his hand what that object was and he tried to help by massaging the furry boy's erection.  
His other hand was soon occupied likewise as Reptile Morty also grabbed for his hand so he would stroke his two stiff members, too._

_With everything that was happening around (and inside) him, Storage Rick wasn't able to last for very long.  
With a muffled moan – that sounded more like a scream – he bucked his hips and came._

_Not a second later, cum shot into his mouth and down his throat as Business Morty also reached his climax.  
A wetness on his hands, chest and stomach told him that Evil Rabbit and Reptile had also found their release.  
It was hard to tell with Blob Morty and in the case of Robot Morty, Rick wasn't even sure if he was physically possible of ejaculation._

_It didn't matter though as the metallic rod pulled out of him.  
Blob Morty also got off from his now limp dick and Business Morty had also pulled out of his mouth._

_Rick released a little sigh of relieve as he tried to catch his breath.  
Finally, it was over. Or, so he thought.  
Unfortunately, he noticed quickly that the Mortys were only swapping positions with each other and they started to pat and stroke his body all over again to bring him back to hardness._

_"Oh c'mon. Gimme a break." He groaned._

_Of course, he couldn't keep up with five horny teenagers. He was just one man! And despite being as fit as he was in his age, he was an _

old_ man at that._

_That fact didn't stop the horny Mortys though…_

After that night, he knew that he couldn't handle these abandoned Mortys anymore and that something needed to be done whether the higher ups finally made a decision or not.  
It must have been fate – even though no Rick believes in such a thing – that a solution showed up on his doorstep right the morning after.

_After he had opened up the Day Care, the Rick Guard had looked over to him and then actually abandoned his post to come over and talk to him. It was the guard that had just arrived for his morning shift and had exchanged the post with the nightshift guard while Storage Rick opened the store._

_"Hey, you look like shit. Didn't get any sleep last night?" he asked after having noticed the heavy dark bags underneath his eyes._

_"Yeah. The Mortys kept me awake." Storage Rick explained, carefully leaving out the detail how they had kept him awake._

_That wasn't anyone's but his and the Mortys' business, so no one needed to know about that._

_"They're becoming a handful, huh?" The guard commented._

_"You bet. I mean they always were, but I feel like things are totally getting out of hand recently…"_

_"Need some help to take them off your back?" Guard Rick asked after he looked around and made sure that no one was in hearing range._

_Storage Rick's eyes narrowed and he knew that he shouldn't, but he asked what the guard had to offer him anyways.  
Guard Rick only grinned before he proposed to him the offer of his lifetime._

Storage Rick knew that what he did was probably not okay. He was violating regulations. He was handing out Mortys to someone other than their owners and that without a specific permission from the higher ups. He let those Mortys be carted off to a brothel.  
It wasn't right, none of it was, but he still did it anyways.

He just kept telling himself that if those Mortys were so eager for a Rick's cock then they would get what they wanted there and he wouldn't have to worry about them anymore. So, any Mortys that still continued to come onto him in the night were fair game to be shipped off.  
It wasn't like their owners would ever come back to retrieve them anyways. They were abandoned Mortys and no one ever came back for them!  
Therefore, Storage Rick tried not to feel bad about it. Was trying to tell himself that what he did was the right choice.  
Heck, they didn't pay him enough to deal with all of this bullshit and this offer wasn't just the perfect solution for his problems, but also earned him something extra.

Since he had started with this he couldn't just back out of it anymore, no matter how illegal it was. He probably would have if there weren't constantly Mortys trying to get into his pants because he didn't want to ship off any that were not interested in something like that. He wouldn't condemn innocent Mortys to such a fate.  
However, for whatever reasons, many of his Mortys seemed to get the appeal and made advances on him so it wasn't like he planned to stop these illegal shipments anytime soon.

The only Morty that he didn't dare to send off was the first one, the Blue Shirt Morty. He couldn't really say why, but he just couldn't get rid of him.  
It was probably too much to say that he was special in anyway because Mortys were never special, but this one had just grown on Storage Rick.  
The little shit was almost constantly at his side, helping him out around work and after working hours. It was almost as if this was HIS Morty and he kind of liked that and not just because of the great sex that he had with him.

This Morty was probably the only one that he could never give away. Maybe not even when his original Rick would ever show up and want to withdraw him again.

He took another drag from his cigarette and held his breath. Before he could release the smoke again, a pair of soft lips pressed against his own and two small hands gripped his hair.  
Rick closed his eyes and the smoke gently wafted out of his nose and between the small gaps of their lips.  
The Blue Shirt Morty ended the kiss and looked dreamily up at him, licking his lips as if Storage Rick had the most delicious taste ever.

"I doubt that my mouth is that tasty while I smoke." Rick commented, his eyes fixated on the pink tongue as it glided over the pretty, rosy lips.

He remembered the complaints from some past lovers who weren't smokers and didn't like it when he kissed them after a cig, much less during smoking one.

"There's nothing more delicious than the taste of my Daddy." Morty said seductively.

Rick drew the boy into his arms, pulling him as tight to his body as possible.

"Well then, how about letting daddy take care of you now? Mhm, baby?" he asked huskily.

Their lips found each other again.

* * *

As promised amongst the Mortys, all three duos – plus the rest of team C-137 – met up in the morning just outside of the Morty Day Care to confront Storage Rick.  
Rick C-137, C-133 and P-78 didn't look really happy to be there, but obviously their Mortys had found a way to persuade them in joying them today for this initiative.

After the last Morty trainer left, the small group approached the counter. Storage Rick only lifted one side of his eyebrow in question, having already noticed the little gathering and wondering what this was about now.  
Especially since it were three Mortys that lead the group while the Ricks stayed more in the background.

"What do you want?" he asked in not exactly a friendly tone.

"We have a few questions and this time we want honest answers." Morty C-137 said in what he hoped was an intimidating voice.

Storage Rick's face didn't change. "Sure. I've got no reason to lie to you. What is it?"

C-133 spoke up now. "We have been checking out all the Ricks that you had suggested might have something to do with the Morty kidnappings and illegal Morty brothel ring and we found out that they're all innocent."

"So?"

"S-so, you ha-have-haven't proven yo-you're innocence yet." A-22β6 spoke up now.

"Excuse me? I've already said that I got nothing to do with this. And it's not like I know anything. I just made some random suggestions because those Ricks were weirdos and suspicious. I'm sorry that the Rick you're looking for was not among them, but it's certainly not me." Storage Rick defended himself. "If you would leave now, I got some working to do here."

"Not so fast, Rick!" The first Rick – C-133 – finally spoke up. "It's not really that farfetched to think that you might have something to do with that."

"Yeah, you have an entire Day Care full of Mortys. Who says that you're not handing some of those over to those brothels on the side." P-78 added.

C-137 also had to comment. "Yeah, can you actually prove that you really got nothing to do with it and know of nothing? Because only someone who wants to hide something starts pointing with fingers at others and you were really quick to do so."

A drop of sweat ran down the side of Storage Rick's face and his mouth and unibrow formed a straight line. "What the heck are you talking about? You noticed that we have really strict regulations in here? I can't just hand out Mortys to anyone. If someone wants to withdraw they have to have a ticket and also need to show an id. I mean just think about how much trouble I would get into if a Morty trainer shows up and wants to withdraw a Morty that I gave out to whoever you think I hand them to?"

Rick C-137 noticed the other's nervousness and immediately latched onto it like a predator that detected fear in its victim. "Surely not all the Mortys, but I bet you have quite a few around that no one comes picking up anymore."

"W-what?"

"You can't tell me that Ricks leave their Mortys here and ALL of them come back to retrieve them again. We Ricks are assholes! As soon as a Rick grows bored of this shitty game, he'll just abandon all their caught Mortys because anything else would be just a hassle. So if you try to tell me that it doesn't happen or you don't know anything about that then you're just a liar and a pretty bad one at that!"

"W-well…" Storage Rick had to swallow because his throat felt entirely to dry and he cursed that he was stuttering so badly all of a sudden.

He never had that problem before.

"Yeah, okay. We have a bunch of abandoned Mortys running around here. I mean, you can clearly see them." The Morty keeper mentioned with his hand inside the Day Care and to the area behind the electrical fence where Mortys were busy with whatever they were doing. "Still, doesn't give you the right to assume that I just sell them out or whatever."

"Really? Then what do you with them?" Rick C-137 wasn't about let up. He actually had fun with this verbal fight and trying to corner the other who was clearly trying to hide something. "Surely those Mortys aren't the only abandoned ones. Where is the rest of them?"

"The information where we store the Mortys is confidential." The reply shot out of Storage Rick as if he was trained to answer that by his employer – which he probably was.

It didn't deter the Rogue Rick. "Say, this is a really small building. I have trouble believing that you can keep all of those stored Mortys here _and_ the ones that no one comes to pick up anymore. You sure you don't hand some of them out to get some space in there?"

"Yeah, even if we don't have any proof now, are you sure that we won't stumble over something if we dig around in regards to those Mortys?" Morty C-137 leaned cockily on the counter, feeling confidence from also noting how much his grandfather had cornered the other Rick.

Storage Rick looked unnerved at the bratty Morty before he finally seemed to give in. They had fucking cornered him on this one!

As if he hadn't already had enough trouble with rumors coursing around because he had messed up one time and handed out a Morty whose Rick actually did come back to retrieve him again. Of course, he had tried to swipe that one under the rug, explaining it away as a misunderstanding. As an error in the computer system or something like that.

He had consoled the Rick with some bribe money, which the greedy bastard readily accepted. And after that, he deflected anyone who was questioning the safety of this place because unfortunately, once rumors came to exist on the Citadel, they had a tendency to last.

However, if these Ricks and Mortys would get too nosy and snuck around, they really might end up blowing his cover – aside from that, he had no idea if they had good connections to the Citadel HQ and when those bureaucrats would start investigating, he would get into a shit ton of trouble.

There was no way that it wouldn't be noticed that Storage Rick had forged some documents and they would see that Mortys weren't actually retrieved, yet missing from the Day Care anyways. While that wouldn't be too fatal to him, he would have some real trouble if they linked him together with that illegal brothel ring.  
And since these guys seemed to only be interested in those, they might leave him out of this whole bullshit if he just confessed now…

Sure, he was going to be in trouble either way now. And that didn't come entirely unexpected. He had a good run, but realistically speaking, this whole thing was bound to blow up eventually.  
And maybe, if he played nice now, he would get away with a milder punishment. Probably try to make it look like he was only a victim in this, too, or something. Because honestly, he was!

"Fine. Maybe I do sell some of those Mortys underneath the table." He finally admitted.

"And do you sell them to some brothels, too." Morty C-133 also leaned on the counter now, fixing the other with a hard stare.

The Rick sighed in defeat. "It-it's not unlikely that they end up there."

"S-so you r-really d-do sell the M-Mortys t-to the brothels?" A-22β6 stuttered accusingly and also leaned a little bit closer.

"Hey, it's not like I'm doing it for the money!" Storage Rick was immediately on the defense again. "You-you have no fucking idea what is going on here! The place is fucking overcrowded with abandoned Mortys and neither Morty Inc. nor the Council of Ricks are doing anything about it. And it's not only that! Believe it or not, but the Mortys that I hand over actually want it. They-they're coming on to me and I really don't wanna deal with those horny little asses. So if-if they want Rick cock so badly then what's the harm in sending them to the brothels? I'm just doing everyone a favor like this."

The disapproving looks he received from the Mortys and their Ricks in front of him spoke otherwise.  
Of course, Storage Rick himself knew that what he did was wrong, but he just couldn't feel bad about it anymore.

He continued. "You know, I'm not the real bad guy here. Do you wanna know who it is? It's the Ricks! All of the Ricks that decided that they grew bored of the Morty craze and then just dump them here with the false promise of eventually retrieving them again instead of just releasing them into the wild. No, they just leave their Mortys here who are waiting for their stupid Ricks to come back, which let's face it will never ever happen!"

It was true! And who was the one who was always left to pick up the shambles of those abandoned and broken Mortys? It was always him – Rick S-124!  
No, in his opinion he had no reason to feel bad about himself because he was still by miles a better Rick than those who were visiting his Morty Day Care.

"Well, it's neither for you nor for us to decide who the bad guy is, so chill out." Rick C-133 was trying to be rational even if it did make him receive disapproving looks from the three Mortys at the counter. "Just tell us about your contacts. We're not really interested in you. We want to know who the big boss behind this entire thing is."

Storage Rick quickly glanced over to the tensed up Guard Rick that stood in front of the electrical fence. "Sorry, no can do."

"Wait? What?!" Morty C-137 practically jumped at that answer.

"You already confessed that you're shipping the Mortys off to the brothel, so why are you trying to hold that information back from us now?" Morty C-133 also couldn't believe what he had heard.

"Surely you can't be willing to stick your neck out for them?" The Morty of the Rogue Rick continued still. "If you leave it at that, we will have to hand you over to the authorities who will just get the information out of you somehow. You can't really want that?"

"Sorry, but I actually don't have any names or addresses. And even if I did, I won't squeal on anyone. Not my style." Storage Rick said as he slowly distanced himself from the counter and waved a Morty in a blue t-shirt over. "If you'll excuse me now, it's time for my _break_."

"What!? Hey!" The Mortys protested at the sudden retreat.

"Morty, let it be." Rick C-137 said.

"What are you saying, Rick?" Morty whirled around to face his grandfather, not believing that he was just giving up like that after they already got a confession out of the other.

The Rogue Rick sighed and began to move while shaking his head. "As I said, Morty. Just. Give. It. A. Rest." He emphasized each word, hoping that Morty would catch on.

However, the boy was too worked up to get it and angrily followed after his Rick who rounded the corner of the Day Care. The other Ricks and their Mortys wordlessly followed, Morty C-133 and Morty A-22β6 looking slightly confused but much calmer than their interdimensional counterpart did.

"I-I-I just can't believe you, Rick!" the angry brunet bellowed loudly.

"Just shut up for a minute, will you?" The scientist said calmly as he leaned against the wall.

"What? No! I won't—" his grandson started, but was interrupted by Rick C-133.

"Calm down again. If you keep being this obnoxious we will never get the information."

"What?" The Morty quietened down as his anger was instantly replaced with confusion.

"Well yeah, it would suck if he overheard me ratting him out. Already got my neck way to deep in the noose thanks to you."

Morty turned to the source of the voice, only to see Storage Rick coming from the back of the Day Care, taking a drag from his freshly lit cigarette.  
He was so confused right now. Did that mean that the other was going to tell them now?

Rick S-124 leaned against the wall and took another puff.

"So, that Guard Rick is your contact person. Is that it?" Rick C-137 asked.

The other nodded. "Yeah, I didn't lie when I said that I have no addresses and no names. I really have no direct contact to the brothels. Rick T-42 is the one who pays me and comes to pick up the Mortys. He'll dress up in civil and come pick up a batch this evening again."

It was pretty simple actually. The "disguised" Guard Rick would act as if he wanted to make a withdrawal, handing him cash instead of the tickets in exchange. Then he would leave with his happy band of five Mortys as if he was just another trainer, pretending to go adventuring with them when in truth he carted them off to the brothels, however he continued to do that.  
Rick S-124 didn't really know anything further than that. Not that he actually needed to know.

"So basically, someone of us just needs to stick around this evening and then follow him to wherever he brings those Mortys." C-133 concluded simply.

"Exactly." Storage Rick breathed out with some smoke.

"Are you really sure that he'll still come after you just confessed to us?"

"Don't worry about that. I'll talk to him later and make sure that he will."

"Well, guess that's that. Good job. C'mon, Morty." C-137 said as he was about to take his leave.

"Not so fast, Rick." His grandson halted the other. "We still have to discuss who's going to stay behind and spy after the guy."

"It's not going to be us 'cause we have stuff to do and places to be at."

"I'm serious, Rick!"

"So am I, Morty."

"No, Rick. You-you're not taking this very seriously, Rick. Doesn't this whole sex trafficking thing that these Ricks have going on with Mortys bother you at all?" Morty stared accusingly at his grandfather.

Now the scientist looked offended. "What kind of question is that? Of course, it does bother me. I mean, this whole thing is just really fucked up. You Mortys are still minors and on top of it, you're our grandsons and incest is just gross! Aside from that, I don't really get why they would run after Mortys. I mean, we're all Rick Sanchez, we can bed anyone that we want, so why chase after a stupid, pubescent teenager?"

"Excuse me?!" his Morty asked back, a frown on his face.

He was clearly offended by what his grandfather just said by making it sound like there was nothing desirable about a Morty. Sure, he didn't get lucky with Jessica or many other girls, but he also got to make out with a few pretty ones.

"Well, I'm sorry, Morty, that you feel offended about that. You know, other kids would be happy if their grandpa told them that he has no desire to fuck them. Didn't know that you would have a problem with that. Is there anything you wanna tell me?"

"What?! No, Rick! Is-it's just—you didn't need to phrase it like that, you know?"

"What? I was stating facts. Honestly, I can't see the appeal."

"Well, Mortys are said to be a pretty good lay, actually." P-78 butted in from the sideline.

"They're also pretty good at giving head – supposedly naturals at it." Then he lifted his hands in a defensive motion, "It's not l-like I would know, it's just what I heard from other Ricks who're into that sort of thing."

"Well, yeah. That's still no excuse to fuck your own grandson." C-137 replied back, remembering that the part about giving head was indeed true according to his own experience with that Rick Fan Morty.

"I get you, man. I'm not into it either. Just saying." P-78 defended himself and couldn't help but glance at his own Morty, who gave him a look that he couldn't read.

"Mortys are made for Ricks." Rick S-124 suddenly joined in on their conversation.

He had already lit a second cig – or was that his third?

"They're a perfect match to us—fucking compatible to us in every way, even to our sexual needs. The marriage between a Rick and Morty would be the only one that could actually work out and that was even admitted by Ricks who have already had more than one failed marriage behind them. Not that I would know since I've never been married to begin with."

"Ah, just shut up about it, will you! This talk is going to make me vomit all over this shitty place." C-137 retorted angrily. "C'mon, Morty. Let's go. We still got stuff to do."

Morty and the rest of the team began to trail behind their leader as they left.

"We talk over the phone again." He shouted towards Morty C-133 and A-22β6, knowing that his grandfather wasn't willing to wait up for him any longer.

They made their way silently towards the portal in the middle of the square.

Before they arrived there, Morty spoke up again, albeit much quieter this time. "Do you actually think that it could be true, Rick? I mean about the match and marriage thing?"

_"Are you actually a Morty that hasn't been fucked by his Rick yet?" _Mysterious Rick's words rang in his head again. _"No need to look so surprised. Ricks and Mortys fucking with each other is actually a pretty common thing."_

'Is it really such a common thing? Is it normal for Ricks and Mortys to fuck with each other? Is that as natural as a Rick usually having a Morty?  
Are we the _odd ones out_ for not doing it…?'

"Morty, let's stop talking about it! It's just disgusting!"

"Yeah, I know…but do you think that there could be really a Rick and a Morty who could be a happily married couple? It's just so hard to imagine…" The brunet trailed off at the end of the sentence and looked like he tried very hard to picture it.

'Actually it's not _that_ hard to imagine now that I know that it's probably a thing…'

Rick abruptly halted, turned around and got down on one knee while grabbing Morty's shoulders. "Listen up, Morty. Ricks will make up whatever kind of bullshit they need as a fucking reason to excuse themselves away. So don't you worry your stupid little Morty head about the crap that you just heard. The Ricks who say that kind of shit just try to make that up as an excuse to be openly sick fucks. I mean, I'm pretty sick, too, not gonna lie about that, but not like _this_! You got that, Morty?"

Morty nodded and it was a good enough response for Rick to let go of his grandson and continue on his way again.

* * *

AN: Okay, I have to admit that I was thinking really long and hard about who should be the last and fifth Morty on Rick's team. I was contemplating even giving him the One True Morty, but in the end, my decision fell on Judge Morty because for one, he's super cool (you need to watch the animation if you haven't yet) and secondly, he was the first really strong Morty that I got on my team when I was playing Pocket Mortys for the first time. He was really way stronger than anyone else in my team, so sorry for putting him on such a high pedestal here, but it's just my way of honoring him in good memory.  
And phew, 10k long chapter, but we're finally getting to the good parts – and the finale is right around the corner. So stay tuned for the last chapter next week!  
(And yes, I do feel bad for making Storage Rick turn from a decent to a bad guy. He's my favorite Rick and I never intended for that to happen when I wrote "Ricking the Routine"…)


	6. Chapter 6: Never more than five Mortys

AN: This is it now people. The last chapter. It's the one that I'm actually most excited about and I hope that you'll like it :)  
Also sorry for posting slightly late, but stuff came up yesterday.

Warnings: more Morty battles, so violence

* * *

**The Lines Between Ricks And Mortys – Chapter 6: "****Never more than five Mortys, huh?" / "I hate you!"**

"So, why are we doing this again?" Rick C-133 asked his Morty, as they stood hidden behind the Morty Day Care.

"We're trying to follow that corrupt Guard Rick to find out where the brothel is located at." The boy replied irritated.

"Yeah, I got that part. But tell me again why WE are the ones doing that? Shouldn't K-4872 be the one to do this espionage bit since he was the one that wanted to find the culprit behind those illegal activities?"

"Well, he's busy investigating something or someone else right now and asked us if we could do this."

"You do realize that we're also busy trying to find a certain culprit. Do I really have to remind you of that?!"

"No, but maybe we find our Morty there, too. What better hiding place would there be for him?"

Rick didn't have a comeback to that. It was probably true that their mysterious Morty would be able to blend in best in a place that was full of Mortys, but still had limited access.  
Yet, he wanted to argue back that it might be too much of a coincidence to find the one they're looking for like that. Not that their current search all over the Citadel had yielded much better results so far.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to make another comment, Rick was shushed by his Morty.

The boy was peeking around the corner and saw the Rick that they had been waiting for standing at the otherwise empty counter. He really was dressed in civil now – better said, he was sporting the standard lab coat and blue sweater that most dimensions' Ricks seemed to prefer.  
It was really a surprise that he still continued to do this after he had seen and overheard how they had cornered Storage Rick today. Maybe Storage Rick was really good at convincing him that everything was still good and he really didn't rat anyone out.

Whatever it was, Morty tried to keep an eye on the Rick's actions while trying to not be noticed, staying hidden behind the corner and having to be careful if they wanted to follow him stealthily to wherever he was going to deliver the five Mortys that he was getting handed…

* * *

Rick C-137 and his group of Mortys meanwhile were on their way to the building where the "Council of Dicks" resided in. He finally had enough badges together to fight them. It was actually ridiculous how many you needed just to be allowed to kick all of their asses.  
However, he finally had collected enough and was also pretty confident in his team of Mortys that he had gathered. Not that he really needed to worry about that anyways, since he knew the council enough to know that those Ricks were all talk, but had no bite behind it. The only thing that they could do was to abuse their position to enforce stupid stuff on other Ricks, but if you were to strip them of that power, they would be absolutely nothing.

"Well, c'mon, Morty. This finally starts to feel like we're getting somewhere in this story. If we win this, we're finally going to get my portal gun back. And hey, you even managed to clear up your little side-quest-thing there—that big thing that you were playing detective for and now all of those Mortys will be saved and everyone's gonna get a happy end. Well, as long as you don't lose against the Mortys from the Council Dicks that we're going to face now." Rick drawled to his original grandson on their way there.

"It's not solved yet, but you're right. C-133 should be able to find the location now and then they can report it to the Citadel police so that they can arrest everyone involved…" Morty didn't sound as enthusiastic as he should.

His Rick was right. Things were finally starting to look up.  
They would be clearing up the whole Morty-trafficking affair and when they defeated the Council they would get their portal gun back so that his grandpa could concentrate on hunting Mysterious Rick down. And he should have no doubt that his Rick would find him – he'd probably made some sort of tracking gadget again to find the other.

The only one that they couldn't help with resolving their problem now was the C-133 duo (and Rick P-78 and his Morty who were only here to help those two). It was certainly worrisome to know that there was a Morty out there who was willing to kill other Mortys and try to turn Ricks into mindless puppets. In a way it reminded him a little of that event with Evil Rick who also kidnapped Mortys and tried to download the contents of his Rick's brain.  
He wondered why that Morty was doing that – what could be his endgame?

However, there was no time to worry about that for him now. The entrance of the government building came already in sight and the only thing he would have to worry about now was winning their next battles.  
Actually, he felt a little pumped up about this and more motivated than in the beginning. Maybe he was just getting used to fighting?  
Whatever it was, he felt ready for it.

As they ventured up the small flight of steps, it struck Morty as odd that the Guard Ricks that were usually positioned next to the doors weren't there, but he didn't dwell too much on it. However, he probably should have thought about that because once they walked inside, he saw what had happened to them:  
The Guard Ricks (who were unconscious) as well as all of the Council members had been beaten and tied up. And the Rick who was responsible for it stood right in the middle of it all…

"That's it. You Council of Idiots have fucked up so much that I will take matters into my own hands now. I will take all of the Mortys on the Citadel with me!" Mysterious Rick declared with an insane glint in his eyes.

"What? That's Rickdiculous!" Riq VI said.

"Wait! Could that mean that Mysterious Rick is the one behind the Morty kidnappings?! And the t-thing with the illegal brothels?!" Morty C-137 blurted out and directed the attention of everyone inside the room to them now.

The new voice made Mysterious Rick also spin around in surprise. He grinned lecherously as his eyes landed on Morty C-137 and he seemed to instantly recognize him.

"Oh, it's you, my lovely. I'm really glad to see you." He said.

Morty felt chills running down his spine and he was surprised, but also relieved as his Rick stepped in front of him and shielded him with his body.

As Mysterious Rick's eyes fell on Rick C-137, his grin dropped and was replaced with a scowl that matched the other's face.

"Not too happy about seeing you again though." He seethed.

"The feeling is mutual, but we still have some unfinished business left to _discuss_."

"Well, unfortunately you picked a really bad timing. It's still a little too early for our confrontation." Mysterious Rick smiled evilly and threw an object at him.

Rick's eyes widened and he yelled at his Mortys "Duck!" before also getting down and covering his face as the bomb landed on the ground.

However, instead of exploding, it only released smoke.  
As Rick looked up again, he could see the tail end a familiar red cape fluttering right past him.

"Quick! He's trying to escape!" Rick shouted and he and his Mortys gave chase.

"H-Hey! What about us?" yelled the still tied up council members after the retreating team.

Mysterious Rick ran. That C-137 had really picked a bad timing there. This wasn't how he had planned it, dammit!

* * *

The C-133 duo meanwhile had been able to follow Rick T-42 without getting detected.

"Aw fuck! You gotta be shitting me!" The Rick groaned out loudly.

It made the pair wonder what was up since they were not able to see what he was seeing right now.

"Don't worry about that, T-42." A voice suddenly rang out through the small alley.

It came from a person that stood on the roof. The C-133 duo flinched, not sure if the mysterious person had seen them from where he stood.

"Just bring them to the other one in sector 3 for now." The boy who could only be a Morty continued to instruct.

"Got ya." The Rick replied and ventured off to the opposite direction with all five Mortys still trailing obediently behind him.

Morty C-133 wondered if they should continue to follow T-42 or concentrate on the ominous Morty on the roof who seemed to have a much higher rank in this trafficking organization. Besides, if they walked after the Rick, he would surely see them.  
That is if he hadn't already…

"I haven't really expected you two to show up here so fast." The Morty directed at them now.

Okay, so he had already seen them.

"Holy crap! Morty, that's him! That's the zany Morty that we're looking for!" Rick suddenly blurted out.

It took a few moments to recognize the other since he wore such a weird outfit: a black uniform with a red 'M' on its front, matching hat and mask and a red cape. However, there was no mistaking that this was the weird Morty that had hired those Mercenary Ricks to kidnap his Morty and tried to manipulate him! He could just tell from that voice and attitude.

Said Morty didn't seem to be bothered that he was found out since he only grinned at Rick C-133's outburst.  
Then he suddenly began to bolt.

"Quick, Morty! Don't lose him!" Rick bellowed and instantly ran after the culprit.

As they dashed out of the alleyway, Morty vaguely noticed that the building that T-42 had led them to was surrounded by police vehicles and Guard Ricks were swarming the place.  
Looks like the police forces and/or militia of the Citadel had already found one of the brothels and was busting the place. So at least that was a problem that was getting resolved already. Good for K-4872.  
Now if they would only be able to catch this Morty, they would have also accomplished their own mission.

* * *

"Damn, did we lose him?" Rick C-137 turned in every direction, trying to figure out which way Mysterious Rick had run.

He and his troupe of Mortys were panting heavily, having chased the weirdo Rick up until this point, but apparently lost sight of him as they came to this cross-section.  
Rick was pissed, not believing that the other just got away like that when he was so goddamn close to catching him.  
He was almost ready to give up when he suddenly caught sight of a red cape that just vanished around a corner.

"There he is! C'mon, Mortys!"

The group continued to chase after their suspect, however, after a while of following this guy, they noticed that something was off.

"Wait a second, Rick. This guy isn't Mysterious Rick. Doesn't he look like a Morty?" Morty C-137 began to ask midrun.

Indeed, the figure that they were chasing after now looked too short to be a Rick, so it could obviously only be a Morty.

Of course, his grandfather had already noticed that, too. "Yeah, Morty, but see that outfit that he wears? It's the same as that weirdo has and I doubt that it's coincidence. Chances are high that this Morty is his acquaintance or at least somehow connected to him and this time we won't lose him."

What Morty hadn't noticed was that the scientist had pulled out his handy Mortytector. With the help of the device they would be able find him again even if he would manage to outrun team C-137.  
Rick had already read his dimension number and would be able to track him anywhere now.

* * *

"Goddamnit!" Rick C-133 cursed as he looked around the cross-section.

They had just lost the Morty that they had been chasing after. And he still hadn't bothered to build a Mortypad with which he would have been able to trace him.  
Just his luck.

"Oh man. What do we do now, Rick?" Morty wondered, looking at the surrounding streets in confusion as he tried to figure out where his evil counterpart went.

"We lost him, Morty. So there's nothing we can do now. I have no way to track the little shit…"

They could only admit defeat now as much as Rick hated to do it. Back to square one, though not entirely stuck as before since they at least knew now that the little psycho seemed to have to do something with that illegal brothel ring…

"Hey, Rick! There!" Morty pointed to a figure that just disappeared around a corner.

Immediately the duo chased after them, but Morty quickly realized his mistake.

"Oh, that's not that Morty. It's actually a Rick." The boy was about to stop, but his Rick kept running, so he started to jog after his grandfather again.

"Maybe. But this Rick wears the same weird uniform as our Morty, so he might lead us to the little shit."

"Wha-what are you doing?" Morty asked as he saw that the scientist pulled his mobile phone from his lab coat.

"I'm calling P-78, so he can cut off the guy's escape route. Otherwise it's stupid just trying to chase and risk losing him again." The other replied while he quick-dialed the aforementioned Rick's number.

There was no way that Rick C-133 would make the same mistake twice…

* * *

Mysterious Rick was getting pretty annoyed that he couldn't shake off his pursuer. For a moment, he had actually thought that he managed to lose them, but suddenly they were right behind him again.  
Of course, in his haste he didn't notice that the duo that was following him now were not Rick and Morty C-137, but C-133 even though it was probably weird that the other Mortys weren't there anymore, but for all he knew they had decided to split up in search for him.

Since he was too busy to come up with an idea how he could get away – using his portal gun was out of the question since they were close enough to follow him through it and he didn't want his precious Legendary Morty end up getting stranded in a dangerous place – and too focused on the Rick and Morty behind him, he didn't pay attention to where exactly he ran.  
So, he only noticed too late when he ran into someone else.

As he looked at the person that he had crashed into, he was confused because it was a Morty who had copied his get-up. Considering that escape was of higher priority to him, he got up again and tried to continue running.  
However, that didn't work out very well because his escape route was suddenly blocked off by another Rick and Morty pair – P-78 and A22ß6.

He also quickly noticed that escaping to his right was not possible since Team C-137 which had been chasing after the weird Morty had also caught up now.  
That left him with only one way, but that was surprisingly quickly blocked off as well as Rick and Morty K-4872 showed up – wherever those two had suddenly come from.

Mysterious Rick groaned, seeing as he wouldn't be able to simply get out of this now.  
With narrowed eyes, he looked at the mysterious Morty who he was going to blame for his failed escape now.  
His eyes widened for a moment, as he seemed to recognize the boy.

"Oh, great. Not you of all people." He murmured sarcastically.

The Morty only humphed in recognition.

"Wow, guys! What are you doing here?" Morty C-137 asked while trying to catch his breath.

"Yeah, I also wanted to ask you that." Morty C-133 retorted. "We were following Rick T-42 as agreed and then we ran into this Morty, who is the same Morty that we have been looking for, but then we lost him and saw this Rick and then we followed him."

"We went to the Council and Mysterious Rick was there and we've been chasing him, lost him and then we found this Morty who wears the same clothes as him, so we followed him instead." C-137 also explained.

"A-an-and we're ju-just here be-because C-133 called u-us." Morty A22ß6 said.

His Rick added, "Yeah, because we were supposed to cut this Rick's escape route off."

All eyes turned to the K-4872 duo. "And we're here because we were tracking Mysterious Rick. I know that this is the Rick that C-137 was looking for now, but that isn't the only reason why we were after him."

"It's because he has to do with the Morty kidnappings, right?" Morty C-137 threw in now. "He said something like wanting to take all the Mortys of the Citadel when he was in the Council building."

"Not quite." Morty K-4872 corrected him. "Mysterious Rick or better said Rick C-777 is actually the owner and CEO of Morty Inc. which is handling all Pocket Mortys related facilities like the Day Care and the Morty Games Coliseum. But that doesn't mean that he's all innocent since he's known for having an obsession with collecting Mortys and it's pretty obvious that these facilities were just used as a means to broaden his collection."

The mysterious Morty scoffed as he listened to that.  
Mysterious Rick threw in evil glare in the boy's direction.

Morty K-4872 continued with what he had found out during his investigation, "What is even more interesting to note is that he is actually the one who had hired us to assassinate Rick S-121 because the Morty brothel ring is hindering his Morty collecting obsession."

"Oh, I should have known that you were behind that!" The evil Morty spoke up again and looked angrily at Mysterious Rick. "What did you think you were doing, you asshole?!"

"Oh, **I** know what you were doing, trying to steal these Mortys away and making my search for the Legendary Morty unnecessarily harder!" The culprit Rick retorted.

"Wait? So does that mean that the Morty that C-133 was looking for is behind that Morty brothel ring now?" Morty C-137 threw in, getting more confused by the minute.

"Yes, it seems that way." Morty K-4872 confirmed. "This Morty has been manipulating Ricks and Mortys alike to build up his whole crime organization. And he had been stealing from Rick C-777's facilities the entire time."

The revelation brought Mysterious Rick to sprout another tirade at the Morty who had no scruple using Ricks and Mortys to get what he wanted.

"You, little fuck! You stole from me! All those precious Mortys! And if that wasn't bad enough you had to dirty them! You've ruined everything, _absolutely everything_ that I spent so much time on to build up!" Rick C-777 seethed.

"Dirtying them? And what do you think it is that you were doing or trying to do to those Mortys?" Morty C-777 shot back, apparently feeling not even an ounce of regret for the things that he had done.

"I'm not like those Ricks. I'm different and I was only trying to find the perfect Morty."

Saying that, Mysterious Rick looked straight at Morty C-137, who couldn't stop himself from shuddering.

Gulping soundly, he stepped up and with a lightly unstable voice, he forced out, "Y-you're both horrible people! And even if you—" he pointed at Mysterious Rick at that. "—have been fighting against that brothel ring, it was only so that you could go and rape all the Mortys instead, which is in no way better than what he had been doing!"

Completely ignoring what the other Morty had just said, the evil brunet asked his fittingly-dressed counterpart, "So, did you finally get the Morty that you had wanted?"

"Well, I've caught a few Mortys, but none of them were good enough for me yet, just like my _original Morty_." He stressed those last two words as he looked sharply at the boy. "However, despite your worst efforts, I was finally able to find the Legendary Morty and I only want him – Morty C-137 – because he is the purest Morty of them all. Unlike the little shit that I had been cursed with!"

"Wait! Does that mean that this Morty is actually your original Morty?" For Morty C-137 the pieces of the puzzle finally started to fall into place – somewhat at least.

"Yep, it is." His grandfather confirmed, looking at his Mortytector. "Dimension C-777. That's his."

"That one is no Morty of mine. He is so impure – the most impure Morty there is. I don't want him or want anything to do with him." Rick C-777 shouted and looked clearly disgusted at even being brought in connection with the boy who still stood next to him. "I'm just interested in pure and innocent Mortys. And I'm going to make them all mine."

Before anyone could even say something else, Morty C-137 stepped forward. "That's it! I've had enough of this! Let me at him, Rick. I'm gonna beat that bastard for good now."

Rick C-137 wore a proud grin on his face. "Sure, Morty. If that's what you want, be my guest."

If the boy was finally getting into it, then by all means…

Mysterious Rick blinked in confusion, but saw that there was obviously no other way out of this situation than to battle it out.  
So he grabbed his portal gun and opened a portal, so he could summon his own Mortys to fight for him.

"Come, my Mortys." He called and not soon after a few Mortys departed from the open vortex. "What? Where is the rest of you guys?"

"Do you know how late it is, Rick? Most of us have already gone to bed." One sleepy Morty answered and rubbed one of his eyes.

"Then go back and wake them up! I need all of you for this battle."

"Okay." The Morty trotted back into the portal, which closed again.

He would just have to do in the meantime with the Mortys that he had here. The first wave consisted of eight Mortys in total – of course, the cheater had to summon more than was allowed according to the official rules.

"Never more than five Mortys, huh?" Morty C-137 complained about that.

"I guess there are just some Ricks who don't like to play by the rules, Morty." His grandpa replied to that.

Unfortunate as it was, his team really only consisted of five Mortys in total, which was going to place them at a disadvantage now. Or at least that was what Rick C-137 had thought, completely forgetting that they weren't entirely alone right now.

"C'mon, Morty. Get in there and help them." Rick K-4872 suddenly spoke up.

"What?! Why?!" His Morty instantly protested.

"What? Y-you think that they can—they can do it alone? Just look at how many Mortys he has."

"He's right, Morty." Rick C-133 said now. "You go in there and help them out, too."

While Morty C-133 sounded anything but pleased at the prospect, he obediently walked over towards the other Mortys, who were getting ready for the battle.  
He couldn't deny that C-137's Mortys alone wouldn't be able to do it.

Rick P-78 looked at his own Morty, but instead of ordering to also get into the fight, as the other Ricks had, he asked, "You wanna join in, too?"

He certainly wasn't going to "force" his Morty into this if he didn't want to.

Morty A-22β6 looked at him for a moment as if to contemplate, but then resolution showed on his face as he nodded.

"Y-y-yeah because—" and then he turned to Mysterious Rick and yelled clear and without stuttering "—because Ricks like you give nice Ricks like Q-89 a bad reputation!"

A disappointed groan could be heard and Rick P-78 slapped a hand on his face and dragged it down in annoyance.

"Really, Morty? Really? That's your reasoning here?" he asked and looked at his Morty, his face showing that he was questioning him, but not angry.

"What's wrong, P-78? Getting jealous?" Rick C-133 couldn't help, but mock him.

"As if! Why should I be jealous?!" Rick P-78 fired back.

He really wasn't. Even if his Morty was attracted to Rick Q-89, he had already told him that he wanted to stay with him and be his Morty. Only his.  
The thought made him almost blush, but Ricks don't blush, so he was able to fight the face coloration down before anyone could take notice of it.

The Mortys were now facing off against each other, as each seemed to pick their opponent.

Morty C-137 was standing opposite to the Rick Morty that they had met in the dungeon who was still clad in the self-made wig and the stolen shirt and lab coat from his original Rick as well as holding said Rick's well preserved brain firmly in his small hands as it was still leaking fluid onto the ground. His opponent's bloodshot eyes were staring directly into his own.

However, Morty didn't shudder or react otherwise to it. While he still thought that the other Morty was creepy, he wasn't scared of this battle.  
He had been more than ready to fight when they were on their way to the Council and his confidence and will to brawl hadn't lessened one bit over the entire chase.

Morty C-133 meanwhile was faced with the Super Rick Fan Morty.  
However, he instantly noticed that his opponent was barely paying attention to him. No, instead the fan seemed much more interested in Rick C-133. And it was pissing Morty off.

This was already the second time that a Morty was awfully interested in his Rick. What was the deal with that? Morty wasn't willing to share – he had already had a hard time accepted Summer to join in on their "Rick and Morty adventures" – and least of all was he willing to hand his Rick over to anyone else. That was his grandpa!

Morty A-22β6 looked at his opponent who was none other than a Mermaid Morty, who looked a little out of his element, balancing with his tail on the concrete. The shy brunet swallowed heavily while mentally telling himself that he shouldn't be scared now.

After all, he had been able to defeat the nightmarish version of his original Rick and he had the support of his new Rick as well as Rick Q-89 (even if he wasn't present right now) and that was all that he truly needed to face off in this battle.

Morty K-4872 was facing Crazy Cat Morty and couldn't help but instantly feel really bad as he stared into the innocent eyes of the other.  
Unlike Team C-137 he wasn't seasoned in Morty battles, so he acted as he always had to on his missions - pointing his laser gun at the enemy. Of course, it only made him feel more miserable because he knew that he shouldn't really shoot the other Morty. It wasn't the boy's fault. He was just being controlled and the one who was actually at fault here was obviously Rick C-777.

It was always a Rick. And it's also always a Rick that he shoots down in the end, so he began to think that it's just the best if they take the short route and aimed with his pistol at Mysterious Rick now.

What he didn't notice in time was that at that exact moment the Cat Morty's eyes changed and he hissed as he noticed that his Rick was in danger.  
The crazy Morty instantly leapt to attack K-4872, biting and scratching at him like a wild animal and managing to topple him over, so that he accidentally dropped his gun in the process.

Judge Morty meanwhile looked in confusion at the one that would be his opponent. It was a Colossal Head Morty who looked equally confused back at the former.  
The judge was pretty sure that he had never seen anything crazy like this before in his life.  
Ironically, the Morty that consistent of nothing more than a giant head, thought the exact same thing as he looked at the judiciary executioner.

Shadow Morty was the one who looked the most unsure with his enemy, yet there was no doubt that he picked the most fitting one for himself – he was staring at the Phantom Morty.  
The other ghost-like Morty looked at him with sorrowful eyes and it was hard to tell who he was pitying more – himself or the specter.

Morticia couldn't help but cringed at the enemy that she was stuck with. The strong stench of urine could be smelled from all the way where she stood and she was totally grossed out from seeing how dirty that Hobo Morty was.  
While she usually wasn't as squeamish as most girls, she thought that she found her master for sure this time…

Super Morty Fan Morty looked downright delighted at the opponent that he got. But also confused.

"Are you actually a Morty in there?" he asked as he stared at Mascot Morty.

His enemy sighed, looking anything but pleased at having to battle now.

As if a silent signal fell, the Mortys started to jump at each other – minus Morty K-4872 and the Crazy Cat Morty who were already wrestling with each other on the ground.

Morty C-137 tackled the Rick Morty to the ground who in turn let his Rick's brain drop. In slight shock he stared at the pinkish mass that laid on the ground and C-137 also look towards it, but rather with badly hidden disgust.  
The next moment, he was suddenly pushed off, as Rick Morty seemed to have snapped. The cosplaying Morty attacked him relentlessly, clearly in a rage for what had just happened.

Morticia meanwhile was still trying to keep an even distance from her enemy. She just couldn't shake off the disgust that she felt from even having to look at the hygiene-lacking Morty.  
Ironically, her enemy didn't try anything on her, just standing there and looking at her.

"Do you like dogs?" he suddenly asked.

Morticia stopped where she stood and questioningly looked back at him. "Uh…actually, not really. I'm more of a cat person."

Hobo Morty looked displeased at the answer.

K-4872 was naturally still busy wrestling with the crazy Morty with the fake cat ears. It was a real struggle for him since the other fought literally back with nails and teeth, scratching and biting him.

"Ow! What the heck is wrong with you?" K-4872 yelled. "Quit acting like you're a feral animal! Is your Rick seriously making you act like this?!"

Even if the other boy was remote controlled via the manipulator chip, it didn't really make sense to him. Maybe it wasn't entirely Mysterious Rick's doing, but this Morty seriously believed himself to be a cat and was therefore acting like this.

A-22β6 gulped heavily as he looked at his opponent, who still hadn't done anything yet. The mermaid just tilted his head and looked curiously at him.

"Are you a new friend?" he asked eventually.

"U-uh… no. We-we're enemies. We're sup-supposed to f-fight a-against each other." The Shy Morty replied, a little confused that the mermaid even had to ask.

"Oh." His opponent only replied and looked disappointed.

A-22β6 was clearly confused and didn't know what to do now. Was he supposed to attack first or something?

'Here goes nothing.' He thought as he readied himself and advanced on his opponent.

Super Morty Fan Morty meanwhile was already in the middle of his attack – though he didn't view it as such. He hung around the neck of the Mascot Morty and still tried to figure out what – or better said, who – was really underneath that mask.

"C'mon! Are you a Morty wearing a Morty costume or are you someone else? I need to know!"

"Cut that out! Let go of me!" Mascot Morty was clearly getting frustrated with the clingy Morty and tried to shake him off of himself again.

Unfortunately, for him, to no avail…

The showdown between the two ghostly Mortys looked anything but spectacular at the moment. They were just staring at each other with sad and lonely eyes.  
If you were close enough to them, you would actually be able to hear them communicate with each other, using pitiful wails and moans.  
Looks like this was a battle that wouldn't take off very soon…

Judge Morty meanwhile was still looking in irritation at the Colossal Head Morty. The bodiless Morty meanwhile floated around, looking like he was searching for an opening to attack the other Morty, but also looking as if he was scared getting to close to him. Still the Morty in the black robes didn't leave his enemy out of his eyes and his stare was intense enough that it might as well be an attack on its own – and it was clearly causing damage to his opponent.

C-133 on his end was currently still being ignored by his opponent.

"You're Rick C-133, aren't you? C-dimension Ricks are so incredible." The fanboy fawned.

Rick C-133 looked anything but pleased by the attention that he received and tried to inch further away. "Uh, Morty? How about you start attacking this little lunatic? Any time now?"

"I would if he would finally start looking at me!" Morty replied, getting more and more frustrated by the minute as he just kept being ignored.

His Rick looked at him as if asking if he was really serious. Being fed up with it, Morty decided that he just would _make_ the other look at him.

Even while this whole fight was like another battle royal again, Mysterious Rick was very focused on it and with his longstanding experience as a Morty trainer – how long had Pocket Mortys been a thing anyway? – he was able to evenly order his Mortys to attack.

At his Rick's command, Super Rick Fan Morty forced himself to turn away from Rick C-133 and eagerly went to attack Morty C-133.  
The boy in the yellow shirt was actually hit by surprise since he had been convinced that he needed to land the first hit to get the attention. So, the fanboy's attack came out of nowhere for him since he had just suddenly turned around and clogged him straight in the face.

The force of the punch was enough to knock C-133 on the ground and he looked up in shock as the other didn't even give him time to recover from it and just pounced on him to continue with what he had started now.

"Don't be scared now and just attack him!" was the order that Colossal Head Morty received from his Rick.

It was as if that simple sentence drained all the fear from him and before Judge Morty could react, the floating head came charging right at him.  
The bodiless Morty rammed with his full weight into the public officer who was swept off his feet by the force.

Judge Morty coughed and rolled on the ground in order to get up again, clearly struggling with this usually easy task. The hit really took it out of him.

Phantom Morty finally also went into action and stopped fraternizing with the enemy as he heard his Rick's voice. The glowing ghost Morty floated towards the specter and grabbed his neck, attempting to strangle the other.  
While it would have been normally impossible for that to work since Shadow Morty had no physical form the ectoplasmic creature was in the same state as him and therefore something akin to physical contact between them was possible.

Feeling the other Morty was so surprising for the shade that he had no idea what to do. His shadowy hands just wrapped around the ghostly ones of his opponent and tried to pry them off again.

"I've had it with you!" Mascot Morty finally snapped and managed to throw the attached fanboy to the ground.

Not wasting any precious time, he used the moment of surprise to pummel his enemy who still needed to recover from falling on the ground.  
Super Fan Morty squeaked as his enemy really began to lay into him.

A-22β6 made the mistake that he was inching slowly towards his opponent instead of just lunging at him. Because if he had done that he might have been able to land the first hit.

As it was though, the Mermaid Morty was the one, who beat him to it now. At Mysterious Rick's command, he quickly slipped over the ground like a sea snake through water and whacked the shy boy with his tail.  
The fishy Morty kept attacking with his fin unrelenting even if his opponent squealed and whimpered in pain from the onslaught.

K-4872 still tried to wrestle his opponent to the ground, who didn't let up in his ferociousness – quite the opposite actually. As soon as Mysterious Rick told him to keep going, the animal-like Morty only continued to bite harder.  
K-4872 was getting convinced that this wasn't entirely Rick C-777's doing. There really was something wrong with this whacky Morty and it didn't just had to do with the chip.

The Morty in the green vest growled as he fought back harder than ever now. As if he would get defeated by a lunatic!

The Hobo Morty may have only looked angry at the female Mortys response, but he seemed to have gotten really enraged as soon as his Rick gave him the order to quit stalling and finally attack.  
Morticia squeaked and tried her best to evade as her opponent finally got in gear and tried to attack her. Normally she would have already countered, but her stinking counterpart was still grossing her out too much. However, it was probably also a good think because it kept her motivated to dodge all of his oncoming attacks.

C-137's predicament meanwhile hadn't gotten any better. The initial rage of the insane Morty had turned into some obligation to follow whatever his genius grandfather ordered him to do. And if he was ordered to destroy his opponent then that was what he would do.  
Of course, he had no idea that Mysterious Rick didn't want C-137 getting hurt too much – really just enough so that he could take him with him without a fight after this whole battle was over – and so he was ready to kill his counterpart.  
Morty C-137 could feel that intention in every one of his enemy's blows – and that was really scary!

"See that?" Mysterious Rick asked as he pushed with his elbow in his original Morty's side. "My Mortys are great! Nothing like _you_."

Morty C-777 snorted. "How would you know? It's not like you have ever used me in a Morty battle. You have no frame of reference how _good_ I really am!"

Now it was his Rick's turn to snort. "What-what is that? A straight invitation to your bedroom, you little whore?"

The way that Mysterious Rick had phrased it made the Morty look clearly upset again.

"That bullshit might work on other Ricks, but not on me, you slut!"

This was setting off a huge argument and before long, the two were bickering like an old married couple. Of course, this in turn took Mysterious Rick's attention from the ongoing battles, which probably wasn't his wisest decision.  
Especially since team C-137 had already proven after their battle against Shibuya Rick that they were pretty good at managing on their own and without their Ricks' orders.

Morty C-137 had no intention to die at the hands of a crazy, scary Morty – well, he didn't have the intention to die by the hands of anyone, as long as he still had a say in the matter – so, he mobilized all the strength that he found in his body and pushed his opponent off again.  
Apparently, it was quite a lot of strength, he noticed, since the force had sent his enemy practically flying. He looked down at his own hands and wondered if the Morty battles that he went through in the past days had really been such a good training for him to become this strong.

Deciding that now wasn't really the time to ponder on that – and it doesn't really matter anyways – he focused back on his opponent, who finally got up again. He charged at Rick Morty again and exchanged blows with him.

While it looked like the damage that they dealt was evenly at first, it soon showed that the weird Morty was the one whose energy was quickly depleting.  
He looked helplessly up at Mysterious Rick who unfortunately didn't have any eyes for him since he was still arguing with his original Morty. With his Rick being blind to his plight, it didn't take much longer until he was drained and collapsed.

Morticia was still busy whining and evading Hobo Morty as if he was a spider, not having made much progress in her own battle.  
It was only when he finally managed to grab her wrist that she completely snapped and lashed out at him. She repeatedly kept bashing on his head with her free hand until he let go while screaming loudly all the while.

However, even after he released her, she didn't calm down again. Morticia was getting on the offensive and repeatedly punched him till he stumbled on the ground. Then she continued to kick him all the while yelling about how gross he is and to never touch her again.

By the time that she had calmed down again, the Hobo Morty was already passed out.  
She flushed in embarrassment as she realized what kind of scene she must have made. Well, she won the fight. That was all that mattered, wasn't it?

Morty K-4872 was still struggling against his opponent. However, fueled by his determination he finally managed to get slowly the upper hand. After pushing the other far enough off that he could use his legs, he kicked Crazy Cat Morty off of himself and got on his feet.

He winced and held his wounded arm, convinced that the cat-eared brunet had actually teared a chunk of his flesh out.  
The feline-like Morty was even quicker up on his feet now and looked truly horrifying with all the blood around his mouth. He leapt at K-4872 again, but this time he saw the attack coming and managed to evade it.

Morty K-4872 used this short time frame to scramble for his dropped gun again. After picking it up, he didn't aim at his enemy though.  
Instead, he decided to use the handle of his weapon to whack him in the head – every ounce of mercy was gone from him after the stunts that his counterpart had pulled on him.

Crazy Cat Morty began to stagger from the injury to his head. However, K-4872 didn't give him a break to recover and hit him again.  
It only took three more well-placed hits until his opponent was down.  
K-4872 only huffed, being fed up with these Morty battles already and feeling suddenly much less sympathy for his brethren. It was just impossible for him to blame this completely on Mysterious Rick and somehow this only infatuated him more now…

A-22β6 was still under attack from the merboy. The fishy tail kept whacking him repeatedly and trying to shield himself with his arms from the onslaught didn't work out very well as the hits were still very painful.  
For a moment, he contemplated to forfeit the fight just to end this torture. His eyes fell on his Rick's face who looked worriedly back at him, looking like he just might intervene and jump in any moment now. If Morty wasn't going to give up on his own P-78 would stop the fight, meaning that it would be a loss for them either way.

His eyes then fell on his fellow Mortys who all fought against their own opponents still. He took notice that they had also been injured, but nonetheless none of them looked like they were even considering giving up.  
No, they kept on going with the determination to win.

Inspired by that, A-22β6 found heart again. He didn't want to be a weakling and the only one who gave up in this battle!  
Heck, he'd been probably through so much worse stuff than all of his counterparts combined, so it would be more than just shameful if he gave up now just because of some tail-wags.

At the mental image of his original grandfather, he felt anger boiling up inside of him instead of the fear that he had always felt before. He had been through that and he had defeated his nightmares. He would also be able to defeat this Morty who was practically disabled on the dry ground that he currently was on!

Unwrapping his arms, instead of trying to shield himself against the oncoming attacks, he grabbed the tail and stopped the other mid-whack from continuing.  
Mermaid blinked at him in irritation.

"Hey! Let go of my tail!" he complained.

Letting go of his enemy was the last thing on A-22β6's mind. Instead, he began to twist and pull on the fishy appendage.  
Despite the flexibility of the fin, he managed to manipulate it in such a way that it was getting painful for his opponent.

"Ouch! Ouch! Stop that!"

But he didn't stop, only twisted harder.  
Mermaid Morty emitted a long drawn out wail, as he was sure that something was starting to break.  
It was only short before the merboy passed out that A-22β6 stopped again. However, the opponent's relief was very short-lived as Morty lifted him up by his tail and finished him off by slamming him into the ground.

A-22β6 panted heavily and looked quite worn out, but after looking over to his Rick and seeing that he was clearly impressed, he knew that it had been worth it.

Mascot Morty was still laying into the fanboy who had gotten into a fetal position on the ground to shield himself from greater damage. This continued on until the Morty in the costume stopped again, panting and in need for a break.

"Are you done now?" Super Morty Fan asked from the ground, looking like the beating hadn't fazed him at all and surprising his opponent. "You're really strong!"

In his fanboyish nature, the fan sprang up and fawned over his enemy again, glomp-hugging him.  
The force and surprise coupled with Mascot Morty's fatigue lead to him falling backwards.  
Now both were laying on the ground, Super Fan Morty on top and nuzzling against his opponent, not even thinking of releasing him from his hug.

"You're so strong and so cool! And since you're a Morty and wearing a Morty costume it's like you're two Mortys in one!" His arms wound tighter and tighter around the other in his excitement. "You-you-you're like the ultimate Morty!"

Mascot Morty could only choke as the other literally squeezed all the air out of him. And frighteningly his grip only kept tightening. Caught in a literal choke-hold and with no way to free his arms or himself in any way, it was just a matter of a few short minutes until the costume-wearing Morty lost consciousness.  
Unfortunately, for him – even though he wasn't really awake to notice – the fanboy still didn't release him even after that.

Shadow Morty still felt the tightening sensation of Phantom Morty's hand squeezing his short neck. While it was almost ridiculous since he already was dead, he still feared for his life. Even if he couldn't clearly remember his last living moments, he was sure that he didn't want to die again.

He choked out a screech like the ones that he usually let lose before he went into a full-scale attack on his opponent and as always the white of his eyes turned red.  
It certainly confused Phantom Morty since this behavior wasn't like his own. He never had felt such a deep rage as his counterpart, only sadness after his death.  
However, he still refused to let go of his opponent.

That soon proved to be a mistake however, since this close range just made the battle end all much quicker.  
Shadowy tendrils erupted from the shade's body and twined around the ghost. In shock, the phantom let go now, but it was already too late.  
He was slowly being encased by something like a dark cloud and unable to see anything beyond the pitch-blackness. Next, the only thing that he knew was pain.

Even before the dark cloud that had surrounded both Mortys had cleared up, the bluish ghost dropped to the ground and ceased moving.

Before the Colossal Head Morty had another chance to ram into him again, Judge Morty whacked him with his trusty gavel the next time that he charged straight at him. The impact made the bodiless Morty wobble through the air, who looked clearly disoriented now.  
Judge Morty finally got up from the ground and kept attacking his opponent. However, he wasn't using his gavel again, but attacked him verbally, listing off how many laws he had just broken by attacking an enforcer of the law and what kind of penalties he would get for that.

The verbal assault combined with the strong hit to his enormous head, caused the enemy a major headache that got worse enough to the point that he eventually fainted and collapsed on the ground.

C-133 was also still under the attack from the lunatic fanboy. Now that he finally got his attention, he wished that he hadn't been so eager for it.

Instead of aiming to shield his face, he tried to catch his opponent's wrists to keep him from attacking further. After a few tries, he actually managed to get a hold on both of them.

Locked in a stalemate now, the two Mortys looked at each other, both panting and wondering where to go from here on.  
The Rick fan was the first to lose his patience and struggled in the hopes that the other would let go of him again. However, C-133 was unyielding and held on tight.

"Let go already!" The fan whined. "I don't wanna be touchy with you! If I'm gonna be touchy with anyone then it's gonna be with your Rick."

"What the hell are you saying?!" C-133 sounded clearly frustrated but still refused to relent on his grip.

Super Rick Fan's attitude switched from annoyed to mischievous in a second. "Oh, you know _exactly_ what I mean."

He leaned over the other, his face getting so close that their noses almost touched and he wore a smug grin on his face while his eyes were half-lidded.

"…and I'm sure that I'm a much better lay for your Rick than you are." He whispered in a sinister tone.

C-133 was flooded by a wave of emotions at that moment.  
He felt disgusted by this crazy Morty who was so eager to get into those sort of activities with Ricks.  
Appalled by the mere suggestion that _his_ Rick would also be into that sort of thing.  
Anger at the sort of Ricks who were in fact into that.  
And also the humiliation of having been at the hands of such Ricks and having been _used_ in such a way.  
A small part of him also still felt jealous that this Morty was vying for his grandfather's rarely given attention.

With a swift movement of his legs, he threw the Rick fan off of himself, who tumbled disoriented over the ground.  
The disorientation didn't last for long though and both Mortys were quickly on their feet again and facing each other.  
However, C-133 was seeing red right now, still fueled by that whirlwind of emotions and he quickly lunged at the other.

The fanboy squeaked as he was the one that was thrown on the ground and pummeled now. He tried to defend himself, even tried to fight back and stop his opponent in the same way that C-133 had done to him before, but he was being completely overpowered.  
Super Rick Fan stood no chance at Morty's rage and was eventually beaten into submission and unconsciousness.

"Looks like your precious Mortys aren't so great now, are they?" Mysterious Morty mocked as he noticed that they were getting knocked out one after the other.

Mysterious Rick made a frustrated growl and opened up another portal to summon more Mortys. Another wave of eight Mortys emerged, the sleepy Morty from before informing him that these were the only ones that he could motivate to get up at this hour.

Rick C-777 growled again. "Are you kidding me?! Just you wait till I get home!"

"Not very loyal, your precious little darlings, huh?" Mysterious Morty was immediately at it again.

And again Mysterious Rick's entire attention went to the argument. Needless to say that his backup Mortys didn't fare much better and were defeated even quicker than the other Mortys before them.  
Being confused by the lack of orders and not able to defend themselves against the rapid attacks of team C-137 and the others, they really stood no chance.

"Looks like you're actually losing this battle." Morty C-777 said smugly.

Mysterious Rick finally noticed it, too.  
His eyes widened as he looked at the battlefield and saw that all of his Mortys were knocked out while his opponent's Mortys stood strong and fixed him with a hardened look that equaled the look on their Ricks' faces.

"No! My Mortys! Do you see what you have done?" He turned back to his original Morty again. "This is all your fault! You fucking ruined everything again! The least you can do now is to go out there and fight them for me!"

"Oh, now that you are losing, you suddenly want something from me!" The Morty instantly argued back.

"You're the one who wants to be my Morty and belong to me so badly, so start becoming useful and get into the battle!" The Rick argued back.

"Forget it! You made your own bed, so you have to lay in it now!"

Mysterious Rick could see the other Ricks advancing on him now and since his Morty still refused to budge, he knew that this was the end of the line for him. Trying to escape was practically impossible for him even if he would try to use his portal gun.  
How could everything just have gone so wrong? After all of his planning.

"Not such a big shot now that you can't hide behind your Mortys anymore, huh?" Rick C-137 commented as he came to a stop right in front of his villainous counterpart.

Then he proceeded to beat the ever-loving crap out of Mysterious Rick.  
Kidnapping and raping his Morty. Stealing his portal gun and then handing it over to the Council so they would be stuck in this stupid game. Rick was sure that he was letting him feel all of the hate that he had stored up in every single blow.

Morty C-777 just stood there and watched his Rick getting beaten to a pulp – not even thinking of helping his grandfather.  
Of course, he had completely forgotten that there was also someone present, who had a grudge against him, but he remembered as soon as Rick C-133 and P-78 were towering over him.

"Well, you little shit. I hope this was all worth it."

In similar fashion to C-137, C-133 began to punch and kick the Morty. No one felt even an ounce of mercy for the boy – neither the Ricks nor the Mortys who watched.

The scene was suddenly interrupted by a loud shout: "Everyone freeze and hands in the air!"

Three Guard Ricks and one Guard Morty quickly advanced with their weapons drawn.

"Great. Now of all times the Council's puppets have to show up." C-137 muttered as he reluctantly followed the order.

His Rick comrades looked likewise enthusiastic about this, but also obeyed.

"This Rick and his Morty started it! They are the bad guys! We were just defending ourselves!" Morty C-137 tried to explain, not wanting them all to get into trouble for this.

Sure, he understood what they did was self-justice and they should have called the police or something as soon as they had cornered the mysterious duo, but even he had to admit that what they did felt right.

"We know." The Guard Morty replied, much to Morty C-137's surprise.

The guard – Morty F-396 – and his Rick went over to the Mysterious Morty and handcuffed him. Likewise, the two other Ricks began to handcuff Mysterious Rick.

"You are under arrest for illegal activities that fall under article 3 paragraph 4b of the Citadel Law Code as well as for kidnapping Mortys, which is article 9." The Morty began to list the crimes that the captured boy had committed against several Ricks and Mortys and also told him his rights.

"Hey! Why are you arresting me?! I have nothing to do with the bullshit that this little psycho had done! If anything, I tried to stop him!" Mysterious Rick protested. "Most of the Mortys that he had kidnapped where stolen from me! I'm the victim here!"

"Oh, you've got your own bunch of crimes that you are getting arrested for now, buddy. We have just gotten a call and a direct order from the Council to catch you after what you had just tried to pull with them." Rick M-28 Δ5, who stood to his right said.

As Morty F-396 looked around at the surrounding Ricks and Mortys, his eyes fell on A-22β6 and he immediately recognized him as the shy Morty back from Morty Academy.  
Morty A-22β6 noticed that he was staring at him and looked back at him with confusion, probably wondering if they knew each other. Of course, he couldn't recognize F-396 because of his uniform and the fact that they had met at the academy when he had been working undercover.

The Guard Morty's eyes fell on P-78 now, who was standing right next to the Shy Morty. The man put his hand on his Morty's shoulder, who then looked up at his Rick and smiled and Morty F-396 had to smile, too.  
Even if this Rick looked kind of scary, he seemed to be nice enough to Morty A-22β6, which he was really glad for. The boy had really deserved a Rick, who would actually care for him.

Rick F-396 spoke up now. "We will have to get testimonies from all of you who are currently present. So please follow us back. And don't worry, you are not in trouble or anything. As soon as we are done with the questioning you are free to go again."

Morty K-4872 stood up at that. "I have done a lot of research on both of these two and gathered a lot of evidence and other material. I'm happy to share all of that with you to ensure that they will receive the proper punishment that they'll deserve."

His Rick groaned at that.  
It was so stupid of his grandson to put this much work into all of his research without getting anything out of it. The least he could have done was to offer to sell the information that he had to them. If the Council was desperate enough – and with how much shit had went down, they must be pretty desperate right now – they would have even paid a nice sum for it.  
His Morty still needed to learn a lot…

"Your help is very much appreciated and we would like to hear and see all of that during the hearing." Rick F-396 replied.

The guards then began to lead the two culprits off. And of course, the duo had to start bickering again.

"See what you got us into now, you dumb little shit?!" Mysterious Rick seethed. "Just because of the shit that you pulled, I'm going to get dragged down, too."

His Morty scoffed at that. "Don't act like you're an innocent."

Morty C-137 had to budge into the conversation again, still feeling pissed off from this Rick's attitude after everything that he had done to him – and most likely done to other Mortys, too.

"How can you still think that what you have done was okay? In which fucked up dimension is it okay to rape someone? And not just someone, but your own grandson?!"

"He's right! You old sick bastard, you do nothing but sleeping around with all of these other Mortys! What about me? You never even asked me." Mysterious Morty quickly jumped on that.

"I've got no interest in you. Mortys are cute and pure, but you are impure and not cute at all. Just take a look at yourself, you little psycho!"

"So, what? You don't even want me in your creepy little collection?!"

"_No, thank you._"

"I hate you!"

Everyone else practically ignored those two at this point. They were clearly both not in their right mind.

"Hey! Wait a second now! I still have a few more questions before we start rolling the credits on this one." Rick C-137 dashed up to walk on the same height as the guards. "I need to know if I'm getting my portal gun back now. I mean, I have defeated this asshole who got me stuck in this stupid Pocket Morty craze. And since he defeated the Council before I got my chance, this must count, too, right?"

"We'll put in a good word for you." Rick F-396 replied, not being in the position to make any promises.

Of course, C-137 didn't like that answer, but was forced to follow along anyways.  
Which didn't mean that he couldn't harass the guards on the entire way, insisting that he really should get his portal gun back.

* * *

After the hearing was over and the Ricks and Mortys were free to go their separate ways again, the Mortys bid goodbye to each other, not sure if they would ever meet again after all of this was over now, but they still had each other's' numbers and would surely stay in contact.

Rick C-137 could convince the Council to give his portal gun back and they could finally return home, too.

Morty C-137 was really exhausted from their adventure and needed some time to think. He reminisced briefly over everything that had happened within the last few days as he laid in his bed.

The sudden appearance of Mysterious Rick, right as he had walked out of his room.  
The kidnapping that followed and then the humiliation that even his own Rick hadn't been able to safe him from.  
Then being stuck in the dungeon since his grandpa had his portal gun stolen and then Mysterious Rick luring them on the Citadel where the Council confiscated their portal gun and forced them to participate in the Morty battles.  
The hunt for Mortys – first the stoic Morticia, then the weird Shadow Morty, the crazy fanboy Super Morty Fan Morty and lastly the cool and collected Judge Morty – and all of the battles against other Ricks and trainers. Well, against their Mortys, to be more precise.

Also the whole investigation to find the culprit behind the illegal Morty brothels, which they also managed to solve.  
And lastly, the final battle against Mysterious Rick.

So much had happened in such a short time and he wanted to think that he had also grown a lot over that time span. He had made new friends – even if they were other Mortys – and had become stronger and smarter and maybe a little less dependent on Rick in their adventures.

But even through all of that, he was still left to deal with the aftermath of Mysterious Rick's actions. And these would appear in the form of nightmares as he would find out as soon as he fell asleep.  
It was kind of like King Jellybean all over again, just that it felt like it was worse this time.

However, that was something that will have to be resolved at another time…

* * *

AN: And that's it! Another 10k chapter, but this is the finale, so it's only natural, right? …I have to admit though that I was really tempted to just skip over the whole battle at the end, but at this point, it feels like it's just a part of the story that shouldn't be missing. And sorry if switching between the single Morty fights back there was getting confusing or something, I just wanted to make it feel a little dynamic.

So, I'm sure that you can already see that there will be more (couldn't have hinted it better at the end). So yeah, keep a look out for the aftermath story if you're interested and still want more.  
And yes, I am aware that there is a hole in the F-396 storyline, but I will cover the missing part in a future installment…probably…  
I'm nowhere near done with the "Entricked Fates" series and this was such a fun project for me. I hope that you liked it as well and found it as exciting as I did.  
Also my muse is still refusing to cooperate with me and my stories are a bit slow-going still (I'm just going through my folder of mostly finished stuff right now and see what I can post at the moment).

By the way, I normally never ask this directly for critique, but to those of you who read the whole story without skipping over the fighting scenes: did you think that I improved on it over the course of the story a little? I mean, yes, I know that I'm still shit at writing action scenes and I will try to spare you from that in the future (…at least for a while), but I was just really curious if you got the impression that I slowly got better on it. I like to think that I improved at least a little bit, but it's probably easier for others to tell (and I know for sure that I'm not just imagining things). Many thanks in advance for letting me know what you thought of it :)


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